Lagos — Nigerian High Commissioner to Ghana, Mr Musiliu Obanikoro, has slammed members of the Niger Delta communities in Ghana over a planned protest by the group in Ghana.

The Niger Delta group had slated protests for the streets of Accra on July 10 and 11 during the visit of President Barack Obama to draw the attention of the U.S. to developments in the oil-rich Niger Delta.

"Whatever the issues are in Nigeria, I think there is enough space for the Niger Delta people to protest at home because there is nothing happening in Nigeria that is not captured by the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria," Obanikoro told a the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Accra yesterday.

He described the planned protest as playing to the gallery, noting that the U.S. Government was fully aware of developments in Nigeria and that the protesters would not achieve anything through the protests.

"I believe that staging their protest in Nigeria can be helpful to them rather than staging it on the streets of Accra during the visit of Mr Obama to the country, Obanikoro said, and advised the group to have a rethink.

On July 1, the President of the Niger Delta community in Ghana, Mr Francis Okporoko, told NAN that no fewer than 500 Niger Delta agitators had arrived in Ghana to join in protests planned by Niger Delta indigenes residing in Ghana.According to him, the protest is to draw Obama's attention to developments in the Niger Delta and make him put pressure on the Nigerian Government to address the problems of the area.

Obanikoro argued that Obama was not in a position to resolve the problems in the Niger Delta, saying that the crisis in the Niger Delta was already in the public domain and that staging protests in Ghana would not add any value to the issues.

"We should learn to resolve our problems by ourselves because other countries do not invite us to resolve their own domestic issues and they do not come to stage protests on the streets of Nigerian cities as the Niger Delta group is trying to do.

Asked what he would be liked to be remembered for in his tour of duty in Ghana, the envoy said that he had lifted the morale of Nigerians in Ghana and that he had been able to make the Ghanaian Government to give priority attention to issues relating to Nigerians.

"The morale of Nigerians in Ghana was at its lowest ebb when I came here but I have been able to change all that within a short space of time and Nigerians now walk with their heads high on the streets of Ghana.

"I have similarly, inaugurated a Nigeria-Ghana Chamber of Commerce to boost trade and economic integration between the two countries and this has assisted in the growing investments by Nigerians in Ghana," Obanikoro stated.

Unofficial records put the number of Nigerians currently residing in Ghana at two million. Most of the Nigerians are involved in trade and commerce.