Group jabs Nigeria High Commissioner over unprovoked attacks on Ghanaian media

A group calling itself, Voice of Nzema (VON) in the Western Region has descended heavily on the Nigeria High Commissioner to Ghana, His Excellency Olufemi Michael Abikoye for attacking the Ghanaian media for performing their duties diligently.

Some Ghanaians on various social media platforms have expressed anger at the current trend of kidnappings involving Nigerian suspects.

And all these criminal cases, the Ghanaian media has been vibrant reporting them.

But, the High Commissioner, His Excellency Olufemi Michael Abikoye, had expressed reservation about the manner the Ghanaian media had reported the incidents describing it as "negative media tag."

The High Commission, in a statement issued in Accra Tuesday, June 18, 2019, expressed worry over the generalisation of Nigerians in Ghana as criminals due to actions of “an insignificant few” Nigerians.

The statement said since the last press release by the commission on April 16, 2019, on maltreatment of Nigerian nationals deported from Ghana to Nigeria, its attention had been drawn to the daily negative media reportage on Nigerians in Ghana, describing them as a bunch of criminals.

It said the Ghanaian Press seemed to have enjoyed a field day in demonising Nigeria, which for all intent and purposes, was seen as a fraternal brother to Ghana.

It mentioned the law-abiding Nigerians in Ghana to include “astute businessmen, bankers, insurance brokers, teeming students as well as investors that were daily trooping to Ghana.”

But in a statement issued by the Voice of Nzema (VON), copied to the media, they expressed their disappointment in the Nigerian High Commissioner for attacking Ghanaian media for performing their duties.

"Mr High Commissioner, we the Voice Of Nzema are highly disappointed in you", the statement fired.

The statement added that "What we expected you to say is that you will work with the Ghanaian authorities to uproot the few bad nuts who are giving Nigerians a bad name, instead of blaming the press".

The statement quizzed, "The press simply report what happens so if a group of individuals engage in kidnapping people and there are Nigerians involved should the press say no these are not Nigerians they are from Papua New Guinea? Recently in a suburb of Accra, 9 Nigerians were arrested and about 50 laptops were seized from them. Mr. Ambassador would you say these people work for Google?"

The statement emphasized that "Never mind the fact that Ghanaians are also involved in committing crime, leave that for us because that is our problem. There are many Nigerians living here who are quietly doing legitimate business and are not bothered by anyone".

It therefore, pointed out to the High Commissioner that Ghanaian media is very credible reporting the facts and nothing else adding that Nigerian media cannot be compared to Ghanaian media.

"It is a red herring to attack the media for reporting what they see. The Ghanaian media are not like the rented press in your corrupt and wretched country where facts are manipulated and put out to suit the highest bidder. They will continue to report factually and accurately, the facts as they see them", the statement noted.

"Has it bothered the so-called High Commissioner to verify the identity of those arrested? Does he expect our media to report that it is other nationals and not Nigerians? Or does he expect our media just to sweep the stories under the carpet as is done in his country where monies exchange hands and stories are quashed? Let me remind him that this is Ghana, not corrupt Nigeria where elections (we mean National elections) are postponed a few hours to the commencement of polls just because the manipulation wasn't properly worked on! Who needs telling that Nigerians perpetrate some of the most heinous crimes in not just Ghana but in other parts of the world", the statement quizzed.

It concluded that "What crime have we as a country committed by accommodating you in our country?"

Below is the full statement

THE VOICE OF NZEMA (VON) ARE HIGHLY DISAPPOINTED IN THE NIGERIAN HIGH COMMISSIONER BY HIS ATTACKS ON GHANAIAN MEDIA FOR REPORTING WHAT THEY SEE

Mr High Commissioner, we the Voice Of Nzema are highly disappointed in you.

What we expected you to say is that you will work with the Ghanaian authorities to uproot the few bad nuts who are giving Nigerians a bad name, instead of blaming the press.

The press simply report what happens so if a group of individuals engage in kidnapping people and there are Nigerians involved should the press say no these are not Nigerians they are from Papua New Guinea? Recently in a suburb of Accra 9 Nigerians were arrested and about 50 laptops were seized from them. Mr. Ambassador would you say these people work for Google?

Never mind the fact that Ghanaians are also involved in committing crime, leave that for us because that is our problem. There are many Nigerians living here who are quietly doing legitimate business and are not bothered by anyone.

It is a red herring to attack the media for reporting what they see. The Ghanaian media are not like the rented press in your corrupt and wretched country where facts are manipulated and put out to suit the highest bidder. They will continue to report factually and accurately, the facts as they see them.

Has it bothered the so-called High Commissioner to verify the identity of those arrested? Does he expect our media to report that it is other nationals and not nigerians? Or does he expect our media just to sweep the stories under the carpet as is done in his country where monies exchange hands and stories are quashed? Let me remind him that this is Ghana, not corrupt Nigeria where elections (we mean National elections) are postponed a few hours to the commencement of polls just because the manipulation wasn't properly worked on! Who needs telling that Nigerians perpetrate some of the most heinous crimes in not just Ghana but in other parts of the world.

If Nigerians are used to kidnapping and ritual killings and have accepted it as a norm that is fine with them but we will never accept it in our country and we encourage the media to continue the good job of reporting it exactly as they see it! This commissioner should face the fact that they have messed up their country and the immigrants from his miserable country have trooped to Ghana and the result is the high crime wave trying to engulf us! There was this bloke of a so-called professor (his credentials need to be checked) who spewed so much garbage about our degrees and now this!

What crime have we as a country committed by accommodating you in our country?