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541 Nigerians, 2,000 Togolese expelled from Ghana

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541 Nigerians, 2,000 Togolese expelled from Ghana



No fewer than 541 Nigerians and 2,000 Togolese have been apprehended and expelled by a joint team of Ghanaian police and immigration service for ‘overpopulating’ a settlement in the country.

The illegal immigrants, many of whom had lived in Ghana for years, were randomly arrested in Bolgatanga community.

FIJ reported that they were driven to Aflao, a border town between Togo and Ghana, where they were detained in an open field for a week.

Narrating his experience, one of the detainees, Eze Maxwell, who hails from Enugu State disclosed that he only moved to Ghana last year in search of greener pasture.

While debunking claims that they were jobless immigrant populating Bolgatanga community, Maxwell explained that he deals in machine spare parts, multilevel marketing and networking business in Ghana.

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“We just woke up one morning to see the police arresting everyone.

“They first said that our population was too much. They later said the community people said we were raping their girls, smoking and doing illegal businesses,” he decried.

The businessman revealed that while the arrested Burkinabe and Togolese were allowed to return to their countries, the Nigerians were detained and told to wait for the Nigerian embassy.

“They said that the embassy would have to come and see us and then talk to Togo and Benin to open their borders for us.

“When they called someone at the embassy, he said he travelled and could not come to see us. But because of the prison break in Imo State, he said we must wait for him to come and check if we were among those that broke out of jail,” Maxwell said.

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While in detention, report said no Nigerian diplomat or representative show up.

Consequently, the detainees were compelled to feed themselves as Ghanaian officials fed them only occasionally.

“When the Nigerian official did not show up, they gave us forms to fill our addresses, names and pictures.. He confirmed that we were not among those inmates who broke out of prison,” Maxwell said.

However, when pressure were mounted on Ghanaian officials by owners of the property where the detainees were kept, they reportedly announced that any detainee who had N20,000 fare would be allowed to leave to return to Nigeria.

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“Those that had the money, made calls. About 300 people were able to raise the money and they got a bus for them,” he said. “Those who could not afford it called our business partner, Eze Ndigbo Na Ghana; he gave N500,000,” Maxwell revealed.

However, moments after he arrived the shore of the country, Maxwell is considering returning to Ghana because of his business.

When contacted, Head of Media for Nigeria in Diaspora Commission, Abdur-Rahman Balogun disclosed that NIDCOM was unaware of the situation.

But he urged the affected persons to write a petition to the commission.



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