Archbishop Berates Onyema Over Demolition of Nigerian Mission in Ghana

The founder of the Resurrection Praise Ministry Worldwide, Archbishop Samson Benjamin has berated Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyema over his reaction to the demolition of a building within the country’s Mission in Ghana.

The Clergy stated that Nigerian officials need to know when to stand up to defend the country’s sovereign integrity, and it’s people, whether home or abroad.

According to him, Nigeria and Nigerians would not be toyed with, or abused at will by any country, especially given its place of pride among comity of nations, if government officials do the right thing at the right time, by sending strong signals that such will not be tolerated.

Reports emerged on Sunday that a certain businessman in Ghana had showed up at the Nigerian Mission House in Ghana, claiming he owned the land on which the property was located.

He later returned with a bulldozer to take down a residential building within the Mission, before he was stopped by the police, who were called in by the Nigerian officials there.

Responding, Onyema had said, “We strongly condemn two outrageous criminal attacks in Accra, Ghana, on a residential building in our diplomatic premises by unknown persons in which a bulldozer was used to demolish the building”

But reacting, Archbishop Benjamin stated that this was not good enough, and that the Minister should resign from office, if he could not handle issues of abuse concerning Nigeria and its citizens outside the country, with the force of authority it deserves.

It would be recalled that Archbishop Benjamin had recently staged a demonstration in front of the Chinese Embassy in Lagos to protest the maltreatment of Nigerians in China in the wake of the coronavirua outbreak.

Further lamenting the development in Ghana, the cleric noted that embassies and foreign missions of countries worldwide are regarded as sovereign territories of the foreign bodies, and wondered how a private citizen could have the audacity to demolish such, if he did not have government’s backing.

He therefore called on the Nigerian government to send a strong signal to its Ghanaian counterpart to register its anger at such a development, to also serve as deterrent to any other country, that may want to toy with Nigeria.

Archbishop Benjamin who is also the president, Foundation for World Peace and Conflict Resolution, equally called on the Ghanaian government, to ensure that Nigerians, and their properties in that country are respected, and well protected given the history shared by both countries.

He noted that though Nigeria likes to play the big brother role in Africa, this should not be taken for granted, even as he said there was an urgent need for Ghana to arrest the businessman responsible for the demolition, to show the world that the government was not in tandem with his action.