Don’t attack foreigners – GUTA cautions members

The Ghana Union of Traders’ Association (GUTA) has warned its members to desist from attacking foreign retailers.

This comes barely 24 hours after some Ghanaian traders at Opera Square in Accra, besieged shops belonging to Nigerians and locked them up.

The move was to forcefully get them to stop engaging in retail business in the country.

But the executives of GUTA said such forceful action is not the best approach to deal with the problem.

Dr. Joseph Obeng, who is the GUTA President said although he supports calls for foreigners to leave the country’s retail sector as the law stipulates, he said attacking foreigners is against the law, and must be frowned upon.

He urged members to rather act to force the country’s authorities to enforce the law that bars foreigners from engaging in retail business instead of taking the laws into their own hands.

“I am cautioning my people not to hurt any foreigner because it is not their fault. We are not fighting persons, we are fighting the system which is not working. The laws that are not working and that the foreigners are taking advantage of weak country that does not even enforce its own laws,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Police say they will soon meet leaders of GUTA and the foreign traders to find an amicable solution to the recurring impasse.

ACP Kwesi Ofori who is the Greater Accra Regional Police operations director said the GUTA members have agreed to halt the illegal activity as a meeting is held at the Regional Police command to address the matter.

“They’ve have agreed in principle of discontinuing from their illicit exercise of closing down shops,” he said.

Last month, the Nigeria Union of Traders Association, Ghana (NUTAG) accused the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) of terrorizing Nigerian traders in Ghana.

The group warned that the antagonism of GUTA is likely to degenerate if not immediately checked.

GUTA had descended on the Nigerian traders in Ghana for trading in the local retail market space.

There were clashes between Ghanaian and Nigerian traders at the Suame Magazine in Kumasi in june 2019 resulting in the destruction of the property whereas, in Accra, the Abossey Okai Spare Parts Dealers gave Government a two-week ultimatum to evict foreigners from the retail space or face their wrath that same month.