Ghanaian investors protest in Abuja; demand Egbetokun’s sack, disclosure of SIP report, N200m damages in lawsuit
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Hundreds of Ghanaian investors and community members on Wednesday besieged the Ghanaian High Commission in Abuja to protest the “systematic harassment, intimidation, and violation of our fundamental rights” by Nigerian police and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
“Our businesses are being hounded at every turn,” lamented Kojo Mensah, one of the lead developers of the River Park Estate project in Abuja.
The investors alleged violation of their fundamental rights, arbitrary arrests, repeated police invitations, and intimidation by both the police and the EFCC.
“We’ve been arrested arbitrarily, summoned without cause, and subjected to endless interrogations, yet the very complaints we cooperated to resolve back in 2012 remain buried in some dusty file,” Mensah said.
The protesters carried placards, some of which read: “Hands Off Ghanaian Investors!”, “Tinubu, Mahama: Intervene Now!”.
The demonstrators sought immediate removal of Inspector General of Police Kayode Egbetokun who they accused of targeted attacks on Ghanaian businesses in Nigeria.
“We demand that President Bola Tinubu and President John Mahama use every diplomatic channel to stop this injustice,” the investors said.
The protest follows the filing of a suit at the Federal High Court in Abuja in which Jonah Capital and its co-plaintiffs named Egbetokun, the Nigeria Police, and the EFCC as defendants.
They are seeking a perpetual injunction restraining both agencies “from any further interference in the River Park Estate matter,” immediate disclosure of the long-delayed Special Investigation Panel (SIP) report, and N200 million in damages for alleged breaches of constitutional rights.
The plaintiffs said the suit is both to seek redress and safeguard the integrity of foreign investments in Nigeria and discourage “state-sponsored intimidation of legitimate investors.”
In their amended writ, the plaintiffs alleged that although the SIP concluded its probe and reported to Egbetokun, those findings have never been furnished to the investors despite repeated formal requests.
“Instead, a senior officer in the IG’s Monitoring Unit has unilaterally reopened the investigation, purportedly to undermine the SIP’s clear exoneration of our companies,” the plaintiffs alleged.
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