Aisha Huang
The Assemblyman for Bepotenten Electoral Area in the Amansie Central District, Ashanti Region, yesterday told an Accra High Court that uncovered pits left behind by illegal mining activities of En Huang, aka Aisha Huang, has claimed the lives of residents.
Mathew Kwabla Abotsi, the prosecution’s seventh witness in the trial of the illegal mining kingpin, said the illegal mining activities of Aisha Huang has affected the living condition of the indigenes.
He indicated that the lands that were mined by the accused person were farmlands that were never reclaimed, and pits were left uncovered.
He cited for instance, Opanin Mensah’s village which is now littered with galamsey sites, adding that “children and adults have fallen into these pits and lost their lives.”
Aisha Huang is on trial for engaging in illegal mining at Bepotenten in Amansie Central District of the Ashanti Region without valid licence.
The Chinese national, who is often referred to as ‘Galamsey Queen’, has also been charged for her illegal re-entry into Ghana after her deportation in 2019, and also for illegally employing foreign nationals.
Led in his evidence-in-chief by the Director of Public Prosecutions, Yvonne Atakora Obuobisa, the witness told the court that the accused person also extended her illegal mining activities across a footpath which residents used to their farms.
Mr. Abotsi said he personally went to Aisha’s mining site at Sukuumu to verify and address the situation, and at the said site, he saw mine workers, both Chinese and Ghanaians numbering about twenty, about six excavators, two washing plants and about four water pumps in use.
“I verified the complaints I had received and found that Aisha’s mining activities had been extended to where the road used to be, and there was uncovered pit filled with water like a dam close to what was left of the footpath,” the witness said.
He said he took up the issue with the accused who had promised to create a new footpath and cover up the dam. “A new path was created but the dam was left uncovered,” the witness said.
Mr. Abotsi also told the court that the illegal mining activities of Aisha Huang also destroyed water bodies, forcing residents to rely on sachet water.
He said as a result of the destruction of the water bodies, he as the assemblyman had to approach Aisha Huang to ensure she dug a well to replace the destroyed sources of water, which she did.
He tendered in evidence a photograph of a well constructed by Aisha Huang at Opanin Mensah Nkegbe’s village, to provide water for residents.
The witness also told the court that he knew Aisha as far back as early 2016 at Gyaaman at Bepotenten, when the community at the time appealed to her to support their school building project.
“The Elders of the Community requested for six thousand cedis as financial support for the project, and I later learnt she gave it to them,” the witness said.
He said Aisha later moved to Bepotenten with her mining activities, and the community also approached her to support them to construct a borehole, but she failed to honour same.
Mr. Abotsi said Aisha then moved her illegal mining activities to Sukuumu sometime in 2017, and the community also approached her to assist them to construct a borehole.
“Sometime after the request was made, the accused person agreed to the request of Sukuumu community and started the borehole project but never completed it,” Mr. Abotsi added.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak