No fewer than 825 Nigerians have been deported from their West African neighbours, Ghana, in months.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, disclosed this on Friday while reacting to the harassment faced by Nigerians in Ghana, insisting that the Nigerian Government may be forced to act.
Mohammed, who listed various acts of hostility carried out against Nigerians, said the FG is urgently considering a number of options aimed at ameliorating the situation.
According to him, the seizure of the Nigerian Mission’s property located at No. 10, Barnes road, Accra, which had been used as diplomatic premises for almost 50 years, was a breach of the Vienna Convention.
He added that the demolition Nigerian Mission’s property located at No. 19/21 Julius Nyerere Street, East Ridge, Accra, and the incessant deportation of Nigerians from Ghana were also hostile actions.
Other hostile action was the locking of over 300 Nigerians’ shops for four months in Kumasi in 2018, including the seal up of over 600 Nigerian shops in 2019 and, currently, over 250 Nigerians shops have been locked.
News Central reports that the Ghanaian government had imposed a $1m trade levy on Nigerian traders in the country. The country’s ministry of trade hut down several Nigerian-owned businesses over their failure to pay the levy.
“The Federal Government will like to put on record the fact that even though, over one million Ghanaians are resident in Nigeria, they are not being subjected to the kind of hostility being meted out to Nigerians in Ghana,” the minister said.
“Also, even though, the main reason given for the seizure of Federal Government property at No. 10, Barnes Road in Accra is the non-renewal of the lease after expiration, the Ghanaian authorities did not give Nigeria the right of first refusal or the notice to renew the lease.”
“By contrast, the lease on some of the properties occupied by the Ghanaian Mission in Nigeria has long expired, yet such properties have not been seized.”