Stop protecting foreigners against us or we will fight you – GUTA warns Ghana govt

The leadership of the Ghana Union Traders Association (GUTA) has said if the Ghanaian authorities continue to harass its members who are fighting against the foreign invasion of the retail market, the union will fight back to ensure that the right things are done.

GUTA said it will neither succumb nor kowtow to pressure and intimidation from the government of Ghana on the matter.

The union called on the government to work in favour of Ghanaians as far as retailing is concerned and desist from protecting foreigners engaged in retailing in Ghana, an action that is against the Act of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC).

In a press release signed by GUTA General Secretary Alpha A. Shaban, the union said: “If the authorities fail to take a decisive and swift action and decide to hide under the law and use the security agencies to harass, intimidate or molest any of our members or traders, who is genuinely fighting to reclaim the territory reserved by the law for them, it will be most unfortunate.”

“GUTA will not succumb or kowtow to any authority on this matter until the right thing is done to save Ghana and Ghanaians from the awful situation, they (authorities) have plunged [us] into as a result of their laxity and inaction”, the statement said.

According to GUTA, the authority’s actions should not be in favour of the foreigners to the detriment of Ghanaians.

“Inasmuch as GUTA would want peaceful coexistence with foreigners, we do not believe that the government’s actions through state institutions should go to favour foreigners to the detriment of its own nationals and also defeat laws that have been passed by the government itself. Ghana, as of now, is not a colony of any other nation in the world.”

GUTA’s statement comes on the heels of a recent ransacking of the shops of some Nigerians at Suame Magazine in the Ashanti Region and the arrest of some of the perpetrators by the police.