President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has admitted that some uncertainty continues to surround the deportation claims about popular Chinese galamsey businesswoman Aisha Huang.
The president said he is not sure whether Aisha Huang was deported back in 2018.
“When you have the situation like this woman [Aisha Huang]…I am not still sure whether she was in fact deported or whether she fled the country the first time and has now come back or whatever but there still seems to be some uncertainty about it,” he said in a radio interview while on tour in the Volta Region.
“Whichever way it is, she’s become the sort of nickname for all that galamsey represents and unfortunately also for the involvement of Chinese nationals in Ghana in this particular illicit trade,” he stated on Ho-based Stonecity Radio.
Aisha Huang, also known as En Huang, had her case with the Accra High Court presided over by Justice Charles Ekow Baiden discontinued as state prosecutors filed a nolle prosequi in 2018.
Subsequently, comments by then Senior Minister Yaw Osafo Mafo in a townhall meeting in the US suggested that the state left Aisha Huang off the hook in order to maintain its cordial relationship with China, with key interest in the Sinohydro deal.
Aisha Huang, who is said to operate a mining support service company in the Ashanti Region, was recently arrested, having re-entered Ghana at the blind side of the immigration.
She has been put before an Accra Circuit Court to re-appear on Wednesday, September 14.
The Attorney General and Minister of Justice has requested her docket – both past and present – while getting the backing of President Akufo-Addo to deal with her, if found guilty, with the amended laws against galamsey.
“May I, learned colleagues, assure you of my full support of the Attorney General in his determination to prosecute Aisha Huang and her collaborators who apparently insist on flouting our laws against galamsey and illegal mining,” he said at the 2022/23 Annual General Conference of the Ghana Bar Association in Ho on Monday, September 12.
“I expect if they are found guilty that the courts will apply the full rigour of the new amended act, Act 995, which has increased substantially the punishment for breaches of the law.”
Source: 3news.com|Ghana