By Dayo Omoogun
The Federal Government has warned that it will no longer tolerate the incessant harassment of its citizens in Ghana and the progressive acts of hostility towards the country by Ghanaian authorities.
The government’s position was made known via a statement personally signed and issued by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, on Friday.
The government said it was urgently considering a number of options aimed at ameliorating the situation adding that” the government had been documenting the acts of hostility towards its people and authorities”.
Some of the sins of the West African Nation against Nigeria as listed in the statement include:
“The seizure of the Nigerian Mission’s property located at No. 10, Barnes Road, Accra, which the Nigerian Government had used as diplomatic premises for almost 50 years and the demolition of the Nigerian Mission’s property located at No. 19/21 Julius Nyerere Street, East Ridge, Accra, both of which it considers as serious breaches of the Vienna Convention.
“The aggressive and incessant deportation of Nigerians from Ghana, noting that between Jan. 2018 and Feb. 2019, no fewer than 825 Nigerians were deported from Ghana.
” More than 300 Nigerian shops were locked for four months in Kumasi in 2018, while over 600 Nigerian shops were locked in 2019, and currently, over 250 Nigerian shops had been locked.”
Others are:
“Residency Permit requirements for which the Ghana Immigration Service has placed huge fees, far higher than the fees charged by the Nigerian Immigration Service.
“These include the compulsory Non-citizen ID card (120 U.S.120 dollars, and 60 U.S. dollars for yearly renewal), Medical examinations, including for Covid-19 which is newly-introduced (about 120 U.S. dollars), and payment for residency permit (400 U.S dollars compared to the N7,000 being paid by Ghanaians for residency card in Nigeria).”
“Outrageous stipulations in the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre Act. “When the Act was initially promulgated in 1994, a foreigner is required to invest at least 300 000 U.S. dollars by way of equity capital and <span;>also employ 10 Ghanaians.
“This Act has now been amended twice, with the 2018 GIPC Act raising the minimum capital base for foreign-owned businesses to one million U.S. dollars.
“Though targeted at foreigners, it seems GIPC’s definition of foreigners is Nigerians. The GIPC Act also negates the ECOWAS Protocol.
The minister said that the Federal Government frowned at the media war against Nigerians in Ghana stressing “that the negative reportage of issues concerning Nigerians resident in Ghana by the Ghanaian media was fuelling an emerging xenophobic attitude towards Nigerian traders and Nigerians in general.
“The immediate fallout is the incessant harassment and arrest of Nigerian traders and closure of their shops.
“Harsh and openly-biased judicial trial and pronouncement of discriminately-long jail terms for convicted Nigerians. “There are currently more than 200 Nigerians in the Nsawam Maximum prison in Ghana alone,” he said.
While stating that the main reason given for the seizure of Federal Government property at No. 10, Barnes Road in Accra was the non-renewal of lease after expiration, he explained that 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”, he said.
Also, the more than one million Ghanaians resident in Nigeria are not being persecuted or harrassed the way Nigerians in Ghana are being maltreated, according to the Minister.
“Nigeria has time after time demonstrated its fidelity to the long cordial relations with Ghana.
“But indications, especially in recent times, are that Nigeria’s stance is now being taken for granted and its citizens being made targets of harassment and objects of ridicule.
“This will no longer be tolerated under any guise,” he said.
The statement appealed to Nigerian citizens resident in Ghana to remain law abiding and to avoid a resort to self- help, notwithstanding their ordeal.