Reps move to protect Nigerians from xenophobic attacks in Ghana

THouse of Representatives yesterday expressed concern over the plight of Nigerian traders in Ghana, whose nationals are allegedly keen on ridding its markets of foreign traders doing retail businesses in the country.

Adopting a motion under matters of urgent importance initiated by Mrs. Tolulope Akande-sadipe during plenary presided over by the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, the House mandated the Nigerian Diaspora Commission, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and House Committee on Diaspora Matters to investigate the matter and urgently prevent a repeat of xenophobic attacks on Nigerians in Ghana.

Akande-sadipe, who chairs the Committee on Diaspora Matters said she had reliable information on Sunday December 1, 2019, that over 600 shops belonging to foreign traders, particularly Nigerians at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, Ghana had been locked up by the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA).

She said this was not the first time such quest to rid the Ghanaian market of foreign traders had occurred, adding that there was a case last month where Ghanaian traders at Opera Square in Accra locked up shops belonging to Nigerians.

The lawmaker also cited a case in August last year where the InterGovernmental Task Force constituted by the Ghanaian Government in its bid to regulate retail trade, arrested and detained 37 Nigerian traders and locked up about 10 shops on Tip Toe Lane at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle Ghana on the pretext that they were yet to regularise their business concerns as prescribed by law.