“We have had enough” – Nigerian traders respond to injustice in Ghana
On Wednesday, Nigerian traders working in Ghana visited the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abuja to protest the lock-up of their Ghana shops.
The demonstrators held placards with different inscriptions of their complaints, peacefully under police watch.
The group leader, Nze Ugo-Akpe Onwuka, said the traders had run out of patience as they had been waiting for the Nigerian government to intervene for seven years but in vain.
READ ALSO: FG to head to ECOWAS court over Ghana’s closure of Nigerian shops
Onwuka said, “We have had enough. This has been going on for seven years, we are being harassed and targeted even though our documentation is up to date.
“Where is the ECOWAS protocol? This is not right. We have Ghanaians doing business here and they are not being harassed. Some of us employ them to work for us in Ghana, yet the authorities there harass us for no just cause.”
READ ALSO: Nigerians in Ghana decry over closure of shops by Ghanaian authorities
He clarified that the plight of Nigerians doing business in Ghana was approaching a peak value and might devolve to a stage whereby Nigerians would become subject to xenophobic attacks unless the problem is addressed.
Daily Times found that during the implementation of the Ghana Investment Promotion Council rules, the Ghanaian Ministry of Trades dismissed allegations of unequal treatment by the Nigerian traders in the region.
It also insisted that the traders must pay the required $1m taxes and other fees imposed on them by the authorities.
