Nigerian traders operating in Ghana under the umbrella of Nigerian Union Traders Association (NUTA) have appealed to President Akufo-Addo and his Nigerian counterpart President Muhammadu Buhari to come to their aid.
In a release signed by their President, Chief Chukwuemeka Nnaji and Secretary-general, Evaristus Nwankwo; they complained about the closure of their shops in both Accra and Kumasi.
The closures they claimed had resulted in their loss of millions of Cedis. Not even their report to the Police about their predicament, they said, had resulted in any change in attitude by the hostile individuals, who they added, were acting in the name of the Ghana Union Traders Association (GUTA).
In spite of the harassment, they now suffer at the hands of GUTA Ghanaian traders in Nigeria, some of them involved in fishing and other business activities were enjoying their stay in that country. Although the Nigerian Investment Promotion Council law prohibits foreigners from engaging in retailing; the law is not applied on Ghanaians.
“We are aware that the Ghanaian business community in Nigeria has not been harassed in any way and they are doing their business unhindered. From Ilorin to Ekiti, Kaduna to Calabar, the Ghanaian community is the second largest in the fishing business as it is from Lagos to Port Harcourt,” they said.
“We are appealing to our president, Muhammadu Buhari to save us and our families from this GUTA intimidation. We do not sleep well again here in Ghana because of GUTA,” they said.
“We want to let the world know that the Ghanaian government has not locked up any of our shops. It is rather GUTA which has been using local street urchins to do their hatchet work of locking up our shops,” they stated.
According to them, in Nigeria, some Ghanaians hold executive positions in the local traders association.
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