Ashanti security needs commendation for arresting En 'Aisha' Huang
The Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei Mensah says the security agencies in the Ashanti Region needs commendation 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.
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The Chinese national, En Huang, popularly referred to as Aisha Huang was earlier arrested for engaging in illegal mining activities and was arraigned.
However, the state showed disinterest in the case, filed a nolle prosequi and deported her to China, her home country in December 2018.
The other three are Jong Li Hua; Huang Jei and Huiad Hiahu, all Chinese nationals.
Prosecutors told the court she had acquired a Togolese visa with a different Chinese passport and different name, Ruixia Huang, flew into Togo and sneaked into Ghana.
NIA confirms renewed En 'Aisha' Huang's Ghana Card is authentic
The prosecutor did not give much detail on when she sneaked into the country and when she was arrested.
Huang is facing an additional charge of engaging in mining without a licence.
Her plea to the charges are yet to be taken by the court presided over by Bright Acquah since the court had no Chinese interpreter at the time.
Aisha Huang sneaks into Ghana, arrested again for illegal mining
Ashanti Regional Minister's explanation on when she was arrested and when she returned to Ghana to engage in illegal mining again
"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 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," Mr Simon Osei Mensah said in a radio interview monitored by Graphic Online on Tuesday evening on Accra based Citi FM.
The radio station had called the regional minister, who heads the Regional Security Council (REGSEC) for a brief on when she was arrested and how they were able to do that considering that she had earlier been deported out of Ghana to her home country in China in December 2018.
And the fact that it had emerged that, she had sneaked into Ghana, 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 a 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 same day, the Regional Minister said she was arrested, 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."
He said further investigations will bring these things out.
He, however, added that En Huang had several businesses before she was even deported.
He said the business were there but "we didn't know they belong to her."
"Some are shops and she has a building property at Ahodwo..., now all of them are locked up. We are yet to ascertain whether they all indeed belong to her," the minister added.
He said he would be surprised to know she had gone into the hinterlands to engage in galamsey activities if she arrived on 31st.
Read also: A-G to re-initiate Aisha Huang's prosecution
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