Amidst the disappointment many Ghanaians felt when Aisha Huang was supposedly deported from the country in 2018, the government would have sighed a relief knowing it had one less galamsey kingpin to deal with in the fight against illegal mining.
But four years later, Aisha Huang is not just back in the country but has brought a conundrum that has raised serious questions about her arrest in 2017 and the events that unfolded.
This arises from the contradictions and confusion characterising the communication of government and state security agencies about what happened to Aisha Huang when the state, to the disappointment of Ghanaians, decided to discontinue her prosecution in 2018.
In this piece, GhanaWeb highlights the various accounts that have been given by some government officials and the disparities:
President Akufo-Addo’s accounts:
When President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo broke his silence on the issue during an interview on Stone City Radio somewhere this week, it was hoped his answers would bring some clarity to the matter.
But the president's answer further deepened the confusion when the sole constitutional recipient of all security issues concerning the land mass of Ghana and its population of over 30 million people, expressed uncertainty about whether Aisha Huang was deported or not.
"… I am not still sure whether she was, in fact, deported or whether she fled the country the first time and has now come back or whatever. There still seems to be some uncertainty about it.
"Whichever way it is, she has become a sort of nickname for all that the 'galamsey' represents and also, unfortunately, for the involvement of Chinese nationals in this illicit trade," the president said.
Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah’s account:
While Ghanaians were struggling to situate the president's statement within its right context, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah sought to clarify the president's statement or so.
The minister, who was sitting right behind the president when he made the statement, for a second seemed to have been taken by surprise as he raised his head abruptly from his phone.
In his clarification that followed public and media reactions to the statement, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah sought to explain that the president’s comment bordered on the difference between deportation and repatriation.
"Prez @NAkufoAddo has never said he isn't sure if Aisha Huang left Ghana. Please quote him well. He said he wasn't sure whether she was deported or she fled.
"The reason for the president's comment is that there is a difference between deportation and repatriation.
"While the Minister for Interior can deport, the Immigration Service cannot. The instrument which the Immigration Service uses in such circumstances is a repatriation notice. Either way, the effect was that she was caused to exit from Ghana at the material moment," the minister stressed in a tweet.
Police account in court:
Ghanaians had 24 hours to decipher the president's statement and juxtapose it with the minister's clarification before Aisha Huang reappeared before the Accra Circuit Court 9, which had remanded her and three other Chinese cohorts into custody the week earlier.
Her reappearance in court on Wednesday, September 14, 2022, curiously opened yet another can of worms, further deepening the confusion about her leaving the country in 2018.
Contrary to the widely circulated report of her supposed deportation corroborated by various state functionaries, the police, in its statement presented to the court on Wednesday, indicated that Aisha Huang actually fled the country in 2018.
As a matter of fact, the prosecution further claimed that she evaded prosecution by fleeing the country.
"All the accused persons are Chinese nationals who have gained notoriety for engaging in a series of small-scale mining activities known as "galamsey" across the country. During the year 2017, 1st accused was arrested for a similar offence but managed to sneak out of the country averting prosecution," portions of the fact sheet sighted by GhanaWeb said.
Blatantly, the police, by virtue of the statement of facts presented in court Wednesday, asked Ghanaians to believe that a State Attorney, Ms. Mercy Arthur, on December 19, 2018, did not ask a High Court presided by Justice Charles Ekow Baiden to discharge Aisha Huang and four other Chinse nationals facing three counts of undertaking small-scale mining operations by filing a nolle prosequi.
Background:
Even before the current issues surrounding Aisha Huang, there was a clear objection from the Ghanaian people about the decision by the state to discontinue her prosecution in 2018 when her supposed deportation was announced.
To justify the government's position on Aisha Huang in 2018, the then Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Maafo, during a town hall meeting with the Ghanaian community in the United States in 2019, attributed the discontinuance and supposed deportation to Ghana's diplomatic relations with China.
According to the minister, it was never in the interest of the state for a woman who sat atop the hierarchy of illegal activities plundering the resources of the state and destroying Ghana's natural environment to be prosecuted.
"We have a very good relationship with China. The main company that is helping develop the infrastructure system in Ghana is Sinohydro, it is a Chinese company. It is the one that is going to help process our bauxite and provide about $2 billion to us.
"So, when there are these kinds of arrangements, there are other things behind the scenes. Putting [Aisha Huang] in jail in Ghana is not going to solve your money problem. It is not going to make you happy or me happy.
"That is not important… The most important thing is that she has been deported out of Ghana. There are many other things beyond what we see in these matters, and everybody is wide awake. The most important thing is that we have established regulations and we are protecting our environment. That is far more important than one Chinese woman who has been deported back to her country," the minister told the gathering of the Ghanaian community whose reactions to the statement were murmurings of disapproval.
Profoundly, the statement by the senior minister remains pivotal in the conversations around Aisha Huang and her notoriety.
Amidst the confusion and incoherence by the government and security agencies about Aisha Huang, there is the underlining concern of Ghanaians about the actual circumstances around her departure from Ghana in 2018.
Aisha Huang is standing a new trial on charges for illegal mining