Expose the bad nuts among you- Nigerian High Commissioner.

Bolgatanga, July 8, GNA- Dr Olatunji Kolapo, Nigerian High Commissioner to Ghana, on Wednesday called on members of the Nigerian Community in the country to expose the bad ones among them. "It is better to expose a criminal in good time rather than shield him and spoil the name of our country", he said.

Dr Kolapo made the call in Bolgatanga during a two-day working visit to the Upper East Region, where he met and interacted with the Nigerian Community.

He said the majority of Nigerians in Ghana were law-abiding and hard working, contributing to the development of the country. "But we cannot rule out the fact that there are a few bad nuts among us, and to shield them will mean that we are encouraging them, which should not be so", he said.

The High Commissioner said the good relationship between Nigeria and Ghana, which existed even before Colonial Rule was getting better every year, and urged all Nigerians in the country to be responsible and to continue to contribute their quota to the progress of the two nations.

Dr Kolapo who assumed duty recently said he had plans to visit all the 10 regions of Ghana to interact with Nigerian communities and also the people they lived with to enable him to know how they were faring. He told the Nigerian Community that the few conflicts that erupted in Nigeria recently had been brought under control and that democracy was thriving.

Dr Kolapo paid courtesy calls on the Regional Minister, Mr Mahami Salifu, and the Bolga Naba, Martin Abilba III, Paramount Chief of the Bolgatanga Traditional Area.

In a welcoming address, Mr. Salifu said Nigerians living in the Region were law-abiding and that there had never been any complaint about them.

Dr Dike Nwoso, a Nigerian Medical Officer, working in Bolgatanga, who read a speech on behalf of the Nigerian Community, said they were happy living with the people and had much freedom to go about their work.

"We are fully integrated in every aspect of life in this Region, we are not maltreated by anybody anywhere. We do not face any discrimination in the schools, in the markets, in the mosques, in the churches, in the streets, in offices or in places where we live.

Some members of the Community complained about being harassed at the Nigerian border when they travelled home saying that while they did not encounter any problems at Ghanaian borders their compatriots rather made things very difficult for them. 8 July 04