President of the Nigerian Union of Traders Association Ghana (NUTAG), Chukwuemeka Nnaji says the government of Ghana must protect their members engaged in trading activities at Abossey Okai from threats and intimidation from members of Ghana Union Traders Association (GUTA).
This call comes on the back of GUTA’s directive threatening all Nigerian traders to close their shops on Wednesday, July 28, 2020, and subsequently submit their business documents to the association for perusal.
While speaking in an interview, Chukwuemeka Nnaji held that GUTA came around with a van and a public address system announcing the directive for the closure of shops which belonged to Nigerians.
“They said we should not open on Wednesday and so we should bring documents to their office. I don’t know whether there is any institutions coming with them or it’s just them…It was just an open-air announcement, they brought a van to broadcast the information,” he said.
Further, he said the Nigerian traders do not have challenges if government agencies are involved and tasked to review their documents. Adding that while they are allowed to trade under ECOWAS protocols in Ghana, they may have no option but to leave the country.
“We are taking this [threat] very seriously. We are calling on the government to protect the lives of Nigerians in Obossey Okai because we don’t want any lives to be lost. If they think there is any problem, they should bring authorities to come and check our documents…The police and the government of Ghana should protect our lives,” he said.
The Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) and Nigerian traders in the country have in the past few months been in bad terms following series of actions taken by GUTA to stop the Nigerians from trading within the retail space.
Some shops belonging to Nigerians at Tiptoe Lane around Kwame Nkrumah Circle were recently allowed to operate after they were forcibly closed by GUTA months ago over as a result of the fracas between the two associations.
Meanwhile, early on, the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) says it will continue to push foreigners without the requisite documents trading in Ghana to be forced out of Ghana’s retail space.
According to GUTA, majority of the over 600 shops they had locked up, have by force reopened by the foreign retailers particularly Nigerians, against the orders of the Presidential Committee on Foreign Retail Trade, which inspected documents of the owners.
President of GUTA, Joseph Obeng said that the Union will not allow illegality to persist to the detriment of its members.
