[ 2017-05-09 ]

Aisha Huang

Court remands ‘galamsey queen’ Aisha Huang
The Criminal High court presided over by Justice
Charles Edward Ekow Baiden has remanded into
prison custody the popular 31-year-old Chinese
woman Aisha Huang and her three other colleagues
who are allegedly involved in galamsey in Ghana.

According to immigration prosecutor Peter Klaver
Antuo, it took the Immigration team several hours
before they could arrest the main suspect and her
accomplices.
He said the immigration will require one more week
to complete their investigations hence their
application for the accused persons to be
remanded.

Defence lawyer Daniel Awuku’s prayer for bail
was premised on the fact that his clients have a
fix place of residence and that they are prepared
to meet any conditions that the court will impose
on them. He also proposed that the immigration
authorities can go ahead and seize the passports
of his clients, if they so desire.

However, the presiding judge said he was not
satisfied with the prayer of the defence lawyer.
The judge subsequently remanded them into Nsawam
prison custody until the next court sitting set
for May 23, 2017.

Back ground

Aisha Huang, who has acquired local names –
Aisha and Yaa Asantewaa – was freed and her
excavators that were seized by operatives of the
National Security released following an order by
the Ashanti Regional Security Council (REGSEC)
after a reported inconclusive investigation into
her alleged illegal activities.

The re-arrest of the woman last Saturday came
shortly after the arrest of four other Chinese
nationals who confessed working as illegal miners
at Bepotenten in the Amansie West District of the
Ashanti Region for Aisha Huang.

The Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) said Aisha was
the kingpin of a Chinese galamsey gang, with other
members being Gao Jin Cheng 45, Lu Qi Jun 39,
Haibin Gao 26 and Zhang Zhi Peng 23.
Ashanti Regional Deputy Commander of GIS, Chief
Superitendent Peter Adu-Appiah, disclosed that the
Chinese immigrant and her cohorts had since been
sent to the national headquarters in Accra for
further investigation.
According to him, it took officers of the Service
more than four hours to get the lady arrested as
she let loose her wild dogs on them, in an effort
to resist arrest.

Aisha Huang was finally nabbed when she went to
the GIS regional office to plead for the release
of the four Chinese illegal miners, even though
she was being sought after without her knowledge.
Even after the deadline for galamsey operators to
fold up had expired, Aisha and her gang were not
ready to abandon the lucrative gold business
before her arrest on Saturday.

It has emerged that Aisha is perceived as
untouchable because she is holding secrete sexual
video tapes of some power brokers in the security
services and some politicians which she is using
for blackmailing. Veteran journalist, Abdul Malik
Kweku Baako of the New Crusading Guide newspaper,
who made the revelation on Joy FM’s ‘News
File’ programme last Saturday, claimed three
women were involved in the supposed sex tape.

According to him, the Chinese women had built a
network of influence in high places in the country
which they rely on for protection whilst engaging
in galamsey activities.

The Comptroller General of the Ghana Immigration
Service, Kwame Takyi, explained yesterday that
following the revelations made by Kweku Baako, his
men moved in to effect Aisha’s arrest after
receiving authorisation from the Interior
Minister.
He said the galamsey suspects had been brought to
Accra and assisting in investigations.

Previous Arrest
Some national security operatives, on July 30,
2016, raided various gold mining sites to impound
excavators and a pickup vehicle belonging to the
Chinese woman that were being used for the illegal
mining operation.
She and her assigns had degraded lands, destroyed
cocoa farms and polluted water bodies in several
communities in the Amansie area, and the national
security, in an attempt to clamp down on her
activities, raided the sites.
At Gyaaman village, the activities of the Chinese
galamsey operator allegedly left six children dead
after the victims drowned in open pits.

However, the Ashanti Regional Security Council,
then headed by John Alexander Ackon found it
expedient to release the four excavators and the
Toyota pickup to the galamsey miner to the chagrin
of the local residents and owners of the mining
concessions, Volta Resources Limited.

Minister’s Explanation
The action followed a decision arrived at by
members of the Security Council “to correct and
streamline” what they considered to be a breach
of “orthodox way and acceptably recognized rules
of the REGSEC in relation to anti-galamsey
operations.”

Even though the region’s former security liaison
officer in the person of Enoch Amoako Nsiah
authorised the seizure of the excavators, the
minister returned them to Aisha.

The former minister explained that the Security
Council in an attempt to establish leads, found it
necessary to release the excavators to the owners
in order to conduct proper investigation towards
the clamp-down of the illegal mining activities in
the region.

On July 30, 2016, some operatives of the National
Security – with assistance from officers at the
Asokwa Divisional Police Command in Kumasi–
raided the Manso Tontokrom gold field to clamp
down on activities of galamseyers.
The illegal miners, including members of Aisha’s
group, reportedly fled from the scene upon seeing
the police, leaving behind mining equipment and
tools.

Two Chinese galamseyers, Chen Bingin 30, and Wu
Xing Qiang 36, who were said to be working for the
‘untouchable’ woman, were also arrested after
a chase, while ten excavators which they were
using for the mining operation were seized by the
combined team of security personnel.

Source - Starrfmonline.com

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