Hon. Dr. John Osei Bobie Boahen, Municipal Chief Executive of Suame has disclosed that GUTA’s (Ghana Union of Traders Association) conflict with Nigerian shop owners at Suame Magazine is one of the challenging issues his Municipality is facing in terms of security.

He spoke that the Suame Industrial enclave has been posing threats to the security situation in the Municipality whenever disagreement starts between traders of the two neighboring countries. He granted that relevant strategies are been mapped to “aggressively and decisively deal with any looming security threat that will rear its ugly head.”

GUTA members have for some time now had their misunderstanding on Nigerians doing retail business in the country with the recent occurring on Thursday as angry members locked up shops owned by Nigerians at Suame Magazine.

GUTA says foreign retailers flout section 27 of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) Act 865 which stipulates that the sale of goods or provision of services in a market, petty trading or hawking or selling of goods in a stall at any place must be reserved for Ghanaians yet foreigners have acquired for themselves shops and dictates the pace of the Ghanaian trade.

In a press briefing at the ‘Meet the Press’ on Thursday, October 31, 2019, the MCE addressed that GUTA’s issue with the foreigners was earlier handled by the Regional Coordinating Council yet since it is within the Suame Municipal, he communicated with the leadership of the foreigners (Nigerians) on the need to register their business per the Legislative Instrument of the country.

“We met their leadership with the most populous group and developed a format for them to look through. They agreed on whatever was presented on the form but since then, not a single person has come to register but the assembly will not sit idle. We are trying to encourage GUTA to exercise patience in their activities,” he said.

Hon. Bobie Boahen also spoke on the need to meet stakeholders including GUTA, leadership of the foreigners and the Garages and Mechanics Association at Suame Magazine to document the activities of the foreigners.

“MUSEC (Municipal Security Committee) must also do something for them to realise that indeed you are working on their needs therefore we will meet and among things that will be considered is the idea of going out with the stakeholders to visit shop by shop and register the foreigners there”

“When we finish, we would go further to deal with the landlords who are housing these people because there is a limit to everything that you do. We’ll also find out how far the landlord can go in harboring a foreigner in his premises. And I believer at the end, it will help to bring down discipline and calm within the enclave, he explained.

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He further revealed that the actions of GUTA would not have extended until date had the Nigerian foreigners worked together with the Suame Municipality in effecting peace and sanity through keeping data of foreigners and the various property owners to be able to monitor them.

“So far as I am concerned, they've not shown any form of co-operation apart from the early days that they agreed warmly for us to get the form printed and the format organized in a proper way yet they have refused to come”

“They are not the only foreigners within our enclave, we hear of Chinese and other people, we don’t know them, we’ll get down to them and find. We intend sending messages around that any landlord harboring a foreigner must also come with them and so that in event something occurs or they are been threatened, we ca also go in to defend them.

“On the other hand, if that foreigner is a bad person, then together with the immigration, we’ll find out the best way of handling that person. So it’s a two way affair,” he added.

On other related matters involving when the Suame Market will be completed, the MCE disclosed that the first phase of the project would finish by the end of the year. He urged marketers to exercise patience as the Municipal corroborate to put up a second modern abattoir to serve the interest of the people.

30 developmental projects were accounted for in the Meet the Press initiative since the establishment of the Assembly with improved sanitation as a result of commitment to ensure that Suame Municipal remains one of the cleanest within Kumasi.