‘Aisha Huang’: State shuts down businesses owned by Chinese ‘galamsey kingpin’

The State has shutdown all businesses belonging to Chinese woman Aisha Huang, who has been arrested for illegal mining.

This was disclosed by the Ashanti Regional Minister Simon Osei-Mensah who also doubles as chairman of the Regional Security Council. The Minister said the State took this action after it emerged that several of her businesses were still operating despite her deportation in 2018.

“She had several businesses, but now all of them have been locked up…The businesses were there, but we didn’t know they belonged to her. How she got here, I cannot tell. The investigations will unravel that,” he told Accra-based Citi FM.

Commendation

Mr. Osei-Mensah believes the Ashanti Regional Security Council needs to be commended for being able to smoke out and arrest “galamsey queen” En ‘Aisha’ Huang, two days after she sneaked into the region.

To him, the security agencies in the region deserves commendation because, they were able to arrest her after she beat all other regions on the border with neighbouring countries.

He further noted that investigations will provide details about how she entered the country.

“I think first of all the Security Agencies in Ashanti must be commended because Ashanti Region is not a border region, we don’t share a boundary with any country. So how she got here to the [Ashanti] region, that one I cannot tell, investigations will definitely reveal that.

“What I know for now is that she claims she got here on 31st [August] and that is what we also know, that, she got into the region on 31st and we have to do some investigations to find out the reality that she was in town,” the Regional Minister told the Accra-based Radio Station.

Arrest in Kumasi

The Minister also gave additional details on how they were able to arrest the Chinese national considering that she had earlier been deported out of Ghana to her home country in China in December 2018.

And the fact it had emerged that she had sneaked into Ghana, and renewed her NON-CITIZEN IDENTITY Ghana card in Tamale on August 25, 2022, according to the National Identification Authority.

“When we got the truth [that she was in town] 6:50am on the 2nd of September [2022], she was arrested in her residence at Ahodwo [Kumasi].

“It was an inter-agency operation, among three agencies – that is the intel unit of the Ghana Immigration Service, together with the Defence Intelligence of 4BN and then NIB [National Intelligence Bureau]. These three agencies worked together to arrest Aisha Huang.”

Asked for clarity on how long she has been in Ghana, Mr. Osei Mensah said: “no what I’m saying is that, unless maybe further interrogation reveals otherwise, for now, we know she came to Ashanti Region or the country on 31st [August], she was arrested on 2nd of September in Kumasi.

She was arraigned at an Accra Circuit Court the same day, the Regional Minister said she was arrested, on September 2.

On whether she was in Kumasi engaging in a business in the sale of minerals and the same activities relating to galamsey, the regional minister said, “for now I don’t have that information. I take my briefing from the security heads. So what they’ve not informed me I cannot talk to that.”

Aisha Huang and three other Chinese nationals were remanded by an Accra Circuit Court when they pleaded not guilty to charges of mining without a license and engaging in the sale and purchase of minerals. The case has been adjourned to September 14.

SOURCE: DAILY MAIL GH with additional files from citinewsroom.com and graphic.com.gh