Nana Kwame Opoku, a Ghanaian charged together with two Chinese for illegal mining in the Ashanti Region, yesterday opened his defence before a High Court in Accra.
He was arrested together with Li Wei Guo and Shi Mei Zhi, a Chinese couple and have all been charged with conspiracy to undertake mining operations without licence contrary to section 23(1) of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960, Act 29 and section 99(2)(a) of the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703) as amended by Act 995 of 2019.
The couple have also been charged with undertaking a mining operation without a licence, contrary to section 99(2)(a) of the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703) as amended by Act 995 of 2019.
Again, they have been charged with false representation in fulfilment of an obligation to obtain a residence permit contrary to section 52(1)(e) of the Immigration Act, 2000 Act 573.
Their Ghanaian counterpart, on the other hand, has been separately charged with facilitating the participation of non-Ghanaians in an illegal mining operation contrary to section 99(5)(b) of the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703) as amended by Act 995 of 2019.
He is further charged with false representation in fulfilling an obligation in obtaining a work permit contrary to section 52(1)(e) of the Immigration Act, 2000 Act 573.
They all pleaded not guilty to the charges and while the Chinese couple were remanded into prison custody, Nana Kwame Opoku was granted bail by the court presided over by Justice Lydia Osei Marfo, a Justice of the Court of Appeal sitting as an addition High Court Judge.
The prosecution has closed its case and the two Chinese have also opened their defence and were extensively cross-examined by the prosecution.
The Ghanaian also opened his defence yesterday and denied the charges levelled against him.
Brief Facts
The prosecution’s brief facts presented at the beginning of the trial indicate that on September 14, 2022, as part of investigations into the case of En Huang, aka Aisha Huang, who has been jailed for illegal mining offences, personnel of the Ministry of National Security, Kumasi, received information that the Chinese couple were engaged in illegal mining activities, so they commenced investigations into their activities.
As a result, these officers arrested the two accused persons and others from their residence at Paraku Estates near Daaban, Kumasi in the Ashanti Region and commenced investigations.
The facts state that the two Chinese are lovers and the investigations established that between 2017 and 2018, they were assisted by Nana Kwame Opoku to procure land at Dunkwa Nwinso in the Eastern Region for illegal mining operations.
Li Wei Guo and Shi Mei Zhi are said to have residence permits issued by the Ghana Immigration Service, but when the processes leading to the issuance of the permits were interrogated, it was found that the work and residence permits were irregularly obtained.