FG Decries Demolition of Nigerian High Commission Residential Quarters in Ghana

By Adedayo Akinwale

The federal government has described the demolition of the Nigerian High Commission residential quarters in Accra, Ghana by unknown persons as ‘outrageous’ and ‘criminal’.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama, disclosed this Sunday when he twitted from his verified Twitter handle.

He tweeted: “We strongly condemn two outrageous criminal attacks in Accra, Ghana, on a residential building in our diplomatic premises by unknown persons in which a bulldozer was used to demolish the building.

“We are engaging the Ghanaian Government and demand urgent action to find the perpetrators and provide adequate protection for Nigerians and their property in Ghana.”

Before this latest attack, Nigerian nationals and their businesses have come under increasing attacks in Ghana in recent years.

In one of those unwarranted attacks, about 10 shops owned by Nigerians were sealed off 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.

Also in 2018, 37 Nigerian traders were arrested and detained by the Inter-Governmental Task Force constituted by the Ghanaian government.

While in December 2019, over 600 shops belonging to foreign traders, most of whom were Nigerians, were forcefully sealed off at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle by the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA).

Nigeria, in January, was forced to deny suggestions of any imminent diplomatic row with Ghana after its officials were allegedly forcefully ejected from a diplomatic property in Accra.