Aisha Huang
A High Court in Accra will today decide the fate of Chinese national Aisha Huang, who is popularly touted as a ‘Galamsey Queen’, as it is set to deliver its judgement in a case in which she is standing trial for engaging in illegal mining (galamsey).
The Chinese national, who illegally returned to Ghana through Togo, after her repatriation in December 2018, has already pleaded guilty to flouting Ghana’s Immigration law, convicted and awaiting sentencing, which would be part of the court’s judgement today.
She is standing trial for undertaking illegal mining and also facilitating mining activities at Bepotenten in the Amansie West District of the Ashanti Region, as a foreigner contrary to the Minerals and Mining Act.
If found guilty, she could be fined for up to GH¢4.2 million or an imprisonment term of up to 25 years.
The court also has discretion to impose both the fine and the custodial sentence at the same time.
AG’s Case
The prosecution led by the Director of Public Prosecution, Yvonne Atakora Obuobisa, in pushing to establish the guilt of Aisha Huang, called 10 witnesses including farmers who told the court that they sold their farmlands to the accused, who had destroyed the farmlands as a result of illegal mining.
Nana Sarfo Prempeh, the prosecution’s third witness, in his evidence-in-chief, told the trial court that the accused has caused what he described as “wholesale damages” to farmers whose farms were destroyed as a result of her illegal mining activities.
He further told the court that Aisha Huang’s illegal mining activities caused damages to residents of Bepotenten, “who could not have access to clean drinking water all because of the illegal mining activities of Aisha Huang on the concession.”
Mathew Kwabla Abotsi, the Assemblyman for Bepotenten Electoral Area in the Amansie Central District, also insisted on seeing Aisha Huang at the galamsey site where she employed workers to mine illegally.
According to him, he saw the accused at a mining site which was taking place on a footpath residents used to their farms when he followed up on a complaint about her encroaching on the footpath.
ASP Charles Adaba (rtd), one of the investigators in the matter, in his testimony, also told the court that the accused had no permit to mine or undertake any mining support services in Ghana.
“The response from the Minerals Commission established that the accused person’s company did not have any licence or authorisation from the Minerals Commission to undertake any small-scale mining operation or to even render mine support service to any person or group,” the retired officer told the court.
Aisha Huang’s Defence
Aisha Huang, in her defence, told the court that neither she as an individual nor her company, Golden Asia, located in Kumasi was engaged in mining or provided mining assistance to anyone, as the company was not licensed to do so, although that was the object of setting up the company.
According to her, neither she nor her company employed any of the four Chinese to mine for them, and she only had the passports of two of the four because they gave them to her to enquire about renewing them after they expired.
Aisha Huang also denied purchasing the farmlands of some of the prosecution witnesses who told the court that they sold their farms to her for mining and she failed to pay the full fee agreed upon, thereby resulting in a law suit.
“Neither myself nor my company Golden Asia own or hired any excavators, a chanfan or the other earth-moving machines allegedly found at the sites the four Chinese men were arrested,” the accused asserted.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak