A Superintendent of Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), David Essien, has disclosed that a Chinese national in the middle of the illegal mining controversy, En Huang, who is also known as Aisha Huang, is not only fluent in English, but also Ghana’s most spoken Akan language, Twi.
Meanwhile, Aisha Huang, since the beginning of her trial at the High Court claimed that she could not understand and express herself in the English language, and, as a result, the High Court, presided over Justice Lydia Osei Marfo, nearly dismissed the case due to the prosecution’s difficulty in accessing a Chinese language interpreter.
However, this position by Aisha was refuted by Sup Essien while testifying yesterday as the Attorney-General (A-G) second prosecution witness (PW2).
He told the court that when he was taking Aisha’s statements during their two encounters, the common language they used was English, and that the accused did not state that she was having any challenge at understanding what he was communicating to her.
The witness also told the court that Aisha, who is standing trial for facilitating the participation of persons engaged in mining operations, and illegal employment of foreign nationals has pleaded not guilty, and is the daughter of one of the directors of a small scale mining company, Agyire Mining Company, which has a concession at Bepotenten in the Ashanti Region.
According to him, the GIS was informed by another Director of the mining company, Alston Ahenkan Agyire, that the accused’s mother leased three acres of the mining company’s concession to her daughter (Aisha) to excavate, but the latter refused to pay for it.
Sup Essien said this whilst being cross-examined by Captain Nkrabeah Effah Dartey (rtd).
The Prosecution, on the other hand, was led by the Deputy A-G, Alfred Siaw Yeboa.
Cross-examination
Court: Mr. Dartey, you have the floor.
Q. Officer, yesterday, you tendered in evidence two statements made by the accused persons, correct?
A. Yes.
Q. When you were taking the statements was there an interpreter or translator?
A. No. I will explain my lord. When I was taking the statement there was no interpreter. Before that I am the same person who delivered the letter to the accused, and at the point of delivery I had a one-on-one interaction with the accused, and we spoke in English.
When she honoured the invitation, during the interview, we spoke in English and she spoke in English, and she was very fluent in English and she even speaks fluent Twi.
So my lord, at the point of taking the statements she did not give us any indication that she needed an interpreter. So she understood all the information and appended her signature.
Q. Did you tell her that the statement that she was making will be used in court?
A. My lord, I did not tell her the statement would be used in court. We invited her to ascertain her immigration status and allegations made against her in the media publications considering her illegal activities at Bepotenten at Amansie Central.
And my lord, if you look at the statement we took in 2016, against the statement we took in 2017, you could see that the accused gave similar information.
My lord, you could see that she gave a background of herself, which is similar in both statements. And with regards to what her activities at the mining sites [were], the accused gave us similar statements and all were said in English.
Q. Your first statement, Exhibit C, was taken on 30the August, 2016. Is that correct?
A. Yes.
Q. Your second statement was taken on 6th May, 2017?
A. Yes.
Q. Now, yesterday in court you told this court that you investigated her marital status on the strength that the Comptroller revoked her indefinite permission to stay in Ghana on 19th December 2019?
A. Yes.
Q. Are you telling this court that the Ghana Immigration Service took three years to investigate the marital status of the accused?
A. My lord, it is true that it took the Service three years to come out with the revocation. My lord, you will agree with me that depending on the level of the case, investigation can take an hour, day, years or decades for [a] crime to be detected. My lord, that notwithstanding, the Ghana Immigration Service was able to detect the crime, and that is the most important thing. However, the officer who undertook the investigations at our Accra Headquarters will come to this court and give further clarifications in this matter.
Q. Mr. David Essien, did you testify in the earlier trial in Jun 2017?
A. Yes.
Q. In that trial, you did not tell the court about the marital status of the accused?
A. Yes, because as at that time, the information about the revocation of the indefinite residence permit had not gotten to my attention.
Q. Mr. Essien, as far as you, Essien, is concerned, you don’t have [a] specific point of fact against the accused in my opinion.
A. No my lord, I have facts about the accused’s involvement in mining. My lord, when I encountered [the] accused on two occasions, we took two statements from her.
My lord, in those two statements she mentioned that she rents excavator machines to Agyiri Mining Company, which has a mining concession at Bepotenten. My lord, investigations followed, and as a result, I was tasked to invite one of the Directors, Agyire Mining, who is in the person Alston Ahenkan Agyire.
My lord, the said Director honoured our invitation and [a] caution statement was taken from him on 19th May, 2017. My lord, in the said statement, Mr. Agyire said he has know the accused for three years, and the accused used to mine on a concession that shares boundaries with their small scale mining concession.
Mr. Agyire further indicated that their company, that is the Agyire Mining Company, has not entered into any agreement of renting excavator machines as claimed by the accused, rather the accused’s monster, who is also a Director of the company, leased three acres of their concession for the accused to mine, out of which the accused has failed to pay them as promised.
My lord, when the media publication came to my attention, we continued with our investigations and mounted surveillance on the accused until our Obuasi team intercepted four employees of the accused.
When the arresting officers brought the employees, the accompanying reports indicated that they were sent to the site to mine for the accused. According to the report, it was Goa who mentioned this to our Obousi team.
Even before the arrival of the arresting team, the accused surfaced at our Kumasi officer to inquire whether her employees she had sent to Bepopotenten had arrived. When she realised… she left.
When I interviewed the intercepted employee, Haibin Gao, who could speak broken English, informed me that the accused sent him to Bepotenten to mine, and that their passports were with the accused.
I was tasked to invite the accused, which she came to the office and provided two passports of the four employees, together with her passport. The accused’s employees were referred to our Accra office for further investigation. This piece of information and evidences confirmed that the accused is involved in illegal mining activities, and that was why she faced trial in 2018.
Q. Now David, all that you have said about Agyiri Mining and your actions are not captured in your witness statement?
A. Agyiri’s caution statement had been submitted to the accused, and I believe it has been disclosed.
Q. I suggest to you that you are not a truthful witness?
A. My lord, it is a lie. My lord, I’m speaking the truth.
Q. I suggest to you that it is clear that you have come here with one objective, to butcher the accused with [a] series of inconsistencies?
A. That is not true. I’m only here to give evidence about my encounter with the accused when I was stationed as a Reinforcement Officer in Kumasi.
Q. Are you an Enforcement Officer or investigation office at the Ghana Immigration Service?
A. I’m an Investigator under the Enforcement Unit.
Q. Did you specifically investigate the allegations made by Mr. Agyire against the accused?
A. A report was sent to our headquarters, and I believe they will follow suit, since I’m now being transferred to the Kotoka International Airport.
Q. My lord, the question has not been answered. You have told the court what Mr. Agyiri told you, and I’m asking whether you personally investigated or cross-checked the allegations made by Agyiri about the accused?
A. My lord, I mentioned that a report on that issue was sent to our headquarters. Let me also add that our headquarters had also written to the Minerals Commission, and it was established that Agyire Mining Company is valid, and it has a small concession at Bepotenten.
Q. Mr. David Essien, I want you to be truthful to this court as an investigation officer of the Enforcement Unit of GIS, as far as the accused was concerned, your information about the accused is based on the information on myjoyonline and what Mr. Agyiripe told, and not your personal and specific information.
A. My lord, apart from the information from the media publications, and what we got from Mr. Agyire and the employees of the accused upon their arrest informed the arresting officers that the accused has sent them to go and mined there.
Case adjourned to 16, November 2022.
