'You can't take the law into your own hands' – Akufo-Addo to GUTA

President Nana Akufo-Addo has told the Ghana Union Traders Association to allow the law to work as far as their concerns with the influx of Nigerians into the retail trade sector in Ghana is concerned.

Addressing GUTA members at the Makola Market on Tuesday, 3 December 2019 as part of his three-day tour of the Greater Accra Region, the President: “People cannot take the law into their own hands and enforce the law”, warning: “If we do that, Ghana will become chaotic”.

“We have to be careful about this phenomenon of taking the law into our own hands about situations that the government is yet to resolve”, the President told the members of GUTA in reference to the group’s closure of shops belonging to Nigerians.

The latest incident was on Monday when members of GUTA forcefully closed down between 60 and 100 retail shops belonging to Nigerians at Tip-Toe Lane at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle.

The police arrested about seven of them in the ensuing melee which saw some of the GUTA members pelt the police with stones and other crude weapons.

President Akufo-Addo urged the GUTA members to cooperate with the Ministry of Trade and the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) in resolving the matter with their Nigerian counterparts.

“Please, allow the work that the Trade Minister and the committee are doing with the immigration authorities to progress. I am confident that if we allow same to work, your issues with foreign participation in the retail business will soon be a thing of the past in line with the law”, the President said.

In his remarks, the President of GUTA, Dr Joseph Obeng, said the group was willing to let the law take its course.