The drama surrounding the notorious Chinese galamsey guru, En Huang, popularly known as Aisha Huang, and the actions of the state gets more interesting by the day.
The latest are documents from two security agencies -the Ghana Police and the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), which are giving contradictory accounts of how the suspect left the country.
Whereas the Ghana Police say Aisha Huang sneaked out of the country to evade prosecution, the GIS has shown documents that she was repatriated.
It would be recalled that when the Galamsey Queen, Aisha Huang, was arrested and arraigned before the court some time in 2018, for engaging in illegal mining, the state entered a nolle prosequi.
The judge, who had earlier complained about the slow pace of the case, was left with no option but to discharge the accused, days after news broke that she had been deported.
Nearly four years after her supposed deportation, Aisha Huang was arrested for the same offences she committed earlier.
The public is told she sneaked back into the country through neighbouring Togo and resumed her illegal trade in earnest, until her arrest, according tothe police.
REPATRIATION LETTER
The Chronicle has sighted a revocation of permit and repatriation letter that the GIS sent to En Huang, also called Aisha Huang, in December 2018.
The letter, which was to notify her of the state’s intention to revoke her permit and repatriate her, was signed by the Comptroller-General, Kwame Asuah Takyi.
It read: “You are hereby informed that, in the accordance with Section 20 (2) (a) of the Immigration Act, 2000, Act 573, your permit to remain in Ghana has been revoked.
You are to leave Ghana immediately on receipt of this notice. You are directed to stay out of the country until the Comptroller-General approves of your future re-entry into Ghana.”
TRAVEL ITINERARY
The Chronicle has also sighted the Ethiopian Airlines’ itinerary with reservation number WCCRBX of En Huang from Accra to Guanzhou, via Addis Ababa.
The itinerary under reference shows that En Huang departed Accra on Ethiopian Airlines flight number ET920 at 12:20 with seat number 32F and boarded the flight through gate C7.
It is unclear why both the Police and the GIS are giving different reports on how Aisha Huang supposedly left the country in 2018.
AKUFO-ADDO UNCERTAIN
In a radio interview as part of his two-day tour of the Volta Region, President Akufo-Addo in responding to question on the issue expressed uncertainty about the action that was taken against Aisha Huang in 2018.
“I’m not still sure whether she was in fact deported, or whether she fled the country the first time and has now come back. There still seems to be some uncertainty about it,” he said.
GOV’T COMMITMENT
Meanwhile, the government has intimated it will take over the case and has asked for Aisha Huang’s docket to be sent to the office of the Attorney-General.
President Nana Akufo-Addo, addressing this year’s Bar Conference, said that the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame, has his (Nana Addo) full support to prosecute persons found to be engaging in illegal mining in the country.
He also reiterated to the members of the Ghana Bar Association “of my full support to 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.”
The President continued, “I expect, if they are found guilty, that the courts will apply the full vigour of the new amended Act 995, which has increased substantially the punishment for breaches of the law.”
