By Vera Anyagafu

Embittered with versions of stories making the  rounds about Chinese government officials molesting Nigerians and threatening them with permanent quarantine, a concerned Nigerian- based business merchant residing in Guangzhou, China , who spoke to Newsbeats on grounds of anonymity, disclosed that, no Nigerian was intentionally maltreated by any Chinese government official.

According to him,  the stories and videos being circulated were not followed with what really happened or transpired.

“l have been disturbed reading and watching these made-up stories and videos, hence, had to speak up to give a first hand information about Chinese government officials chasing Nigerians and other black people out of their homes and out of the hotels”, the merchant stated.

He condemned the manner in which some of his fellow  Nigerians disseminate news, explaining that,  “The story you heard happened in Guangzhou, where I reside and do my business. Just before the borders were closed and flights were stopped from coming in, some of our people had come to buy goods and the Chinese government responsible authority, asked them to self-isolate to be checked and confirmed negative of the covid-19.

They personally took them to a hotel since they mandated all hotels not to allow foreigners, unless with covid-19 free certification.”

Continuing, he said the  “Chinese authority, by law, were to pick people both foreigners and citizens, to check them up and lodge  in a designated hotel.

” The cops will check you every morning, test your temperature to see if you have any symptoms, and release you after 14 days to go about your business, when confirmed to be without the virus.

“But 3 to 4 days before the 14 days isolation was over, the authorities discovered that three of our people, Nigerians,  had the symptoms and further procedure discovered 2 out of the 3  had typhoid and the 3rd person had coronavirus.

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“They wanted to treat the one that had it, but he refused and said they wanted to inject him with the virus and kill him. They told him they do not want to do that but just wanted to treat him like they also treated their nationals who had also  caught the virus, but he refused. Instead, he fought the medical workers”, the merchant disclosed.

He also disclosed that the patient hit one of the officials somewhere around his eye.

” You know white people’s body, the person got a bruise and the locals got angry about that when they heard the story. Even the chairman of the Nigerian community in China got involved. He succeeded in calming the situation “, he stated.

Subsequently, he said the Chinese official insisted on a condition that the said  Nigerian man must be deported after treatment in China.

“Because of this, they started monitoring the blacks to check for the symptoms. They went to places that black people ate. They found a Nigerian man, by name Emma, who was married to a Chinese woman.  The woman cooks food and people had been eating there for weeks. They found out that the woman went to her village and came back with the virus. The woman did not self isolate for 14 days but went on cooking for people. They also found out that it was mostly black people who patronised the woman. So they shut down everywhere that had predominantly black people in Guangzhou”, he added.

In furtherance, he said all the aforementioned, happened in Guangzhou, a city in China, but majority of the people made it sound like its happening all over China.

“Anyway, they shut down everywhere the blacks eat in Guangzhou. They rationalised that if it were black people who patronised the woman, and she had been serving them for days, some black people would have contracted the virus from the woman. Because of this, they asked those people who had been in isolation to remain indoors until they sort out the issue with the Chinese woman, married to a Nigerian and all  people she came in contact with.

“They got health workers to move from house to house to check people and run some tests. They will run the tests and ask you to wait for 24 hours. And after 24 hours, if you test negative, they will give you a card to be able to go out. Now that card is what you would use to go to the markets and other places you wish to visit. So people tested were asked to stay indoors until the tests had been done for everybody so that they could figure out those who had it and those who do not  have it, but majority of the blacks, mostly Nigerians  refused. They all defied the orders and went out.

“Now the law that was given to all the hotels was not to allow any foreigners in except for one hotel. That one Hotel was also instructed not to let anybody out or in. But you know how our people behave, they all gathered, making noise and all went out together. When they wanted to go into the markets, they were asked to show their cards because the locals had been told to always ask for cards to know those who had been tested. So when they didn’t show their cards, they were not allowed into the markets, and when they got back to the hotel, the management refused to let them in because that was the instruction by the police. Then they started the story that Igbo people were being chased out of their apartments and hotels and asked to go home”, the business merchant also disclosed.

He however noted that nothing beyond his report was the situation in Guangzhou, China, stressing that, people saw the video and started making statements such as, “look how they are throwing Igbo people and black people out”

“But you were asked to stay indoors so they can sort things out. They are trying to solve this problem so the virus can be under control before they let people in. For those of us here, we were isolated, tested and issued our cards before we were able to move around. But people coming in want to move around without testing, and it’s not good for the people who are already here. That’s what they were trying to sort out, but our people didn’t understand this, and it caused problems after they defied the instructions, saying they were not allowed to go inside.

” And for those who left their homes, the officials would go to these homes to check if they stayed back home as instructed, and if they are not found in their homes, they will lock up the houses. This is one of the reasons some affected Nigerians go about falsifying they were thrown out of their homes”, he pointed out.

He also disclosed that when they were instructed to stay indoors, he stayed in for a month and two weeks.

“I didn’t step out. Today no one has evicted me from my house, and no one has asked me not to come in. Even when I resumed my trading business, I did that for one month, and they called me again, gave me test kits that I had to use every day to check myself for 14 days. I did that and showed them the results.

“Follow the rules so things will be easy for you here. And to my fellow Nigerians at home, do not allow yourself be misled by fake news”, He concluded.

Vanguard