Drama unfolded in court yesterday when Prosecutors arraigned En Huang, popularly known as Aisha Huang the Chinese Galamsey Queen before court. Contrary to reports and documents by the Ghana Immigration service suggesting she was repatriated from the jurisdiction in 2018, police prosecutors told the court she fled.
An earlier announcement that she was deported was called into question when President Akufo-Addo earlier this week suggested there were conflicting reports about how the government’s instructions were actually carried out. Explanations by information minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah to the effect that the Ghana Immigration service had provide government with evidence of her repatriation still did not calm nerves.
In court yesterday further controversy was stoked when the police suggested she fled the jurisdiction contrary to the immigration service evidence that she was repatriated.
The Court remanded her and three other accomplices into police custody for unlawfully engaging in small-scale mining without license.
The four accused appeared before the Court on Wednesday, September 14 and pleaded not guilty to the two charges of mining without a licence and engaging in the sale and purchase of minerals without a valid licence.
Defence lawyer Nkrabea Effah Darteh argued that all Ghanaians subject to the laws for which his clients are standing trial are innocent until proven guilty.
Therefore, he prayed the court, presided over by Justice Samuel Bright Appiah, to grant all the four accused bail.
He said it is the media that have blown the case beyond proportion and that his clients are ready with surety for bail.
But prosecution said the public interest in the case demands that the accused are remanded for thorough investigations to continue.
It said the accused, especially Aisha Huang, has a history of deceiving persons and leaving the country.
In considering both arguments, Justice Bright Appiah denied the accused bail and remanded them into police custody.