Reports have emerged stating that the Nigerian High Commission in Ghana has been forcefully evicted from its diplomatic property by the Ghanaian government.
Nigerian High Commissioner to Ghana, Michael Olufemi Abikoye, released a statement on December 31, 2019, revealing that the property located at No.10 Barnes Road, Accra was reallocated to Amaco Microfinance on August 26, 2019, with the consent of Ghana’s Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources and Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration.
While Ghana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed that the Nigerian Government failed to renew the property following expiration, Abikoye alleged that the reallocation occurred due to continuous violation of the diplomatic property.
In a terse letter dated December 27, 2019, Solicitors acting on behalf of Amaco Microfinance Company Limited instructed the High Commission to vacate its diplomatic property at No.10 Barnes Road, Accra, threatening to deposit the Mission’s belongings at the nearest Accra police station if the directive was not followed. The property was subsequently broken into by the company and is being ransacked, with the likelihood of being effectively occupied.
Reacting to the development, the Federal Government insisted that the High Commission of Nigeria in Ghana was neither evicted from its chancery nor its residence.
Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ferdinand Nwonye, clarified that the lease agreement signed between the Nigerian Ministry of Finance and the Ghanaian ministry expired in August 2019, and reassured that the situation was being addressed.
He stated, “It is not our chancery; it is not our residence, it is just one of our official quarters and has been unoccupied for some time. Though we have some items inside it, but no one is occupying it.”