Hundreds of Ghanaian investors and community members staged a protest on Wednesday at the Nigerian High Commission in Abuja, decrying what they described as “state-sponsored harassment” by the Nigeria Police and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Carrying placards with messages such as “Hands Off Ghanaian Investors” and “Tinubu, Mahama: Intervene Now!”, the protesters demanded immediate intervention from both President Bola Tinubu and former Ghanaian President John Mahama. They also called for the removal of Nigeria’s Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, accusing him of targeting Ghanaian-owned businesses.
Kojo Mensah, a lead developer of the River Park Estate in Abuja, voiced the group’s frustration:
“Our businesses are being hounded at every turn. We’ve been arrested arbitrarily, summoned without cause, and subjected to endless interrogations. Complaints we resolved in 2012 are still being used against us.”
The protest coincided with the filing of a lawsuit at the Federal High Court in Abuja. In the suit, Jonah Capital and other plaintiffs named IGP Egbetokun, the Nigeria Police, and the EFCC as defendants.
The investors are seeking a perpetual injunction to stop both agencies from further interference in the River Park Estate case, immediate release of a long-overdue Special Investigation Panel (SIP) report and ₦200 million in damages for alleged constitutional rights violations.
According to the plaintiffs, although the SIP concluded its investigation and submitted a report to the Inspector General, the findings were never disclosed—despite multiple formal requests. Instead, they allege, a senior officer in the IG’s Monitoring Unit has reopened the investigation without justification, allegedly to undermine the panel’s reported exoneration of their businesses.
The investors say their legal action aims not only to seek redress but to protect the broader interests of foreign investors in Nigeria and push back against what they describe as “systematic intimidation” by state actors.
