Crime News
Outrage As Ghana Closes 400 Nigerian Traders’ Shops
The National Association of Nigerian Traders (NANTs), on Wednesday took their protest to the Abuja Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to protest the incessant maltreatment of Nigerian traders in Ghana.
NANTs said in 2018, the Ministry of Trade and Industry(GIPC) and Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) in a joint operation established a taskforce with specific mandate to clamp down on Nigerian traders, saying this has eventually resulted in the ongoing closure of over 400 Nigerian Traders’ shops in Kumasi and the Ashanti region of Ghana.
NANTs President, Ken Ukuoha, who at the ECOWAS Secretariat, lamented that Nigerian traders are shutout of their business premises in pursuance of the eviction order dated 27th July 2018, demanding that traders must have $1million as minimum foreign investment capital to do business in Ghana as stipulated in the said GIPC Act, 2013.
He said:
“We are deeply worried with the high level of government complicity and state sponsored incitement and xenophobic attacks on Nigerians on the street of Ghana. We can provide evidence based on information in video clips and recorded attacks leaving countless Nigerian traders at various hospitals.
“Regrettably on Saturday 22/09/2018, one of our female members, Mrs. Stella Ogonna Okpaleke whose shop has been under locks and keys by the Ghana authority committed suicide and died. Her body has been deposited in the mortuary.
“Another frustrating aspect of our travail in Ghana, is where government security agencies have continually expressed helplessness by turning their eyes the other way, when Ghanaian hired thugs and criminals unleash mayhem on Nigerians, molesting and looting their goods and properties.”
He said among NANTs demand, is the immediate reopening of the over 400 Nigerian owned locked shops in Ghana, as well as the immediate return of all seized goods.
He said the government should undertake to protect and provide security for all Nigerian traders and families and be held accountable for any ill treatment on Nigerian traders, or Nigerian citizens residing in Ghana.
Nigerians should not be subject to arbitrary and punitive taxation. GIPC Act should not be applied on Nigerian traders as we are not foreigners in Ghana but bonafide community citizens under ECOWAS Law, he stated.
iron bar
October 4, 2018 at 6:06 AM
we are being tackled from left right and center.same with cameroon and south africa.well such humiliation is not being met with resistance with our failed leaders.THIS mass exodus from our nation is really hitting us below the belt..ghana must go turning to naija must go.shebi some commercial workers were deported.such frustration should make everyone to stand firm and vote out crooks in power and get the nation back otherwise nothing will happen.
Jimmy Oyeniyi
October 4, 2018 at 6:07 AM
Too bad they are doing Nigeria must go
Cupid
October 4, 2018 at 7:50 AM
@Jimmy O. Exactly what is bad doing Nigeria must go? Obama, who is black, declined coming to Nigeria, but went to other African Nations instead. Now Buhari surprisingly, was able to meet TRUMP. I looked at him standing lifelessly while Trump was looking at him like….Say something Mr President. Buhari opened his mouth and said nothing of no Economic importance. Then, you have the stupid Nigerian entourage who had nothing to say but to ask Trump when he would be coming to Nigeria, as if that matters, and whether America will buy more oil from Nigeria, at a time when America is building an Electric Cars thereby no longer relying on crude oils for power. I believe the meeting between Trump and Buhari was a historic one accorded an African President ever but, we failed to seize that opportunity to bring Nigeria back on the map in a Trump Era. Melania Trump now goes to Africa, she too, ignores Nigeria, but Ghana. I watched the October 1st parade, the Armies are misstepping, the Horses are tired and incoherent. You know what? we just don’t get it. Everywhere we go, America, Canada, Asia, Italy, Dubai, South Africa, and now Ghana, we become a laughing stock. Yes, Nigeria Must Go. Yeye Nation.
Kim
October 4, 2018 at 3:43 PM
@Cupid. Very well said
Amy
October 4, 2018 at 10:09 PM
@ cupid, you are a perfect writer and an exllecent observer, what you said is exactly what it is, i give you 5 stars . Can you imagine in 2018 tinubu is still holding a state as huge as lagos under severe siege, and pple are clapping, the effect is why the citizens are being chased as houseflies anywhere we go
Jilo
October 5, 2018 at 12:38 PM
The most annoying part of this is, most of our useless leaders don’t see anything wrong in this, instead they kept fighting for money and how to have more properties in countries where they are not welcome. These inept leaders cannot even stand up for their own citizens being maltreated abroad. Nigeria is nothing but a hoax. We should not blame those western leaders who do not want to visit Nigeria. Let ‘s be factual here, would anyone of us want to associate with someone who cannot add any value to our life’s? that is what’s happening exactly. There will be a time when their stolen assets will mean nothing to their host Countries and they will be disgraced with all their illegally acquired wealth.
Mon
October 6, 2018 at 5:22 AM
The hard truth here is the people affected are mostly if not all, Biafrans, you can call them people from South East of Nigeria, and ironically, these are the same people Nigeria government wants to annihilate, hence they will keep quiet. No doubt that the masses in Nigeria, regardless of your ethnicity are on the receiving side of bad leadership in Nigeria, but Nigeria Federal government still see Biafrans as pain in their ass and can go extend of paying foreign governments to frustrate them wherever they are. This British company called Nigeria must soon collapse.