Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Bianca Ojukwu, has met with Ghana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Samuel Ablakwa, to address the recent wave of protests targeting Nigerians living in Ghana.
In a statement shared on her official social media account on Thursday, Ojukwu disclosed that the meeting focused on concerns arising from the demonstrations, where some Ghanaian citizens accused Nigerians of contributing to rising crime levels.
“Meeting with the Hon. Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ghana, Hon. Samuel Ablakwa, to address the situation of Nigeria-Ghana citizens’ relations in the aftermath of protests against Nigerians living in Ghana,” she wrote.
She added, “The Minister assured that the lives, properties and businesses of Nigeria and Nigerians living in Ghana are safe and protected, and that there is certainly no threat of mass deportations of our nationals residing in Ghana.”
The protests, which were captured in a viral video, showed demonstrators calling on Ghanaian authorities to expel Nigerians over alleged misconduct.
In response, the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM) on Tuesday urged calm and condemned the generalisation of Nigerians as criminals. NiDCOM Chairperson, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, described the accusations as unfair and misleading.
“Nigerians are not criminals. They are good ambassadors wherever they find themselves, while those bad ones should be fished out to face necessary sanctions,” Dabiri-Erewa stated in a release issued by the agency’s Director of Media, Public Relations and Protocols, Abdur-Rahman Balogun.
She appealed to both Nigerians and Ghanaians to avoid inflammatory remarks that could escalate tensions, stressing that there was no verified evidence of attacks on Nigerian-owned shops or properties in Ghana.
“There is no evidence to that, and we must at all cost try to prevent any reprisal attacks,” she said.
Dabiri-Erewa also reassured the Nigerian community in Ghana that the relevant authorities were actively addressing the matter. “We urge our citizens not to be provoked or resort to violence,” she added.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Diaspora and Non-Governmental Organisations, Senator Aniekan Bassey, described the protests as “deeply disturbing and contrary to the spirit of African brotherhood.”
In a statement issued on Tuesday, Senator Bassey — also a member of the 6th Legislature of the ECOWAS Parliament — called for sustained diplomatic engagement and regional cooperation.
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