A Criminal High Court in Accra presided over by Justice Edward Charles Ekow Baiden has remanded into Prison custody Galamsey Kingpin AISHA HUANG, the 31-year-old Chinese woman suspected to be one of Ghana’s most notorious illegal miners and her three other Chinese colleagues.
According to immigration prosecutor Peter Klaver Antuo, it took them several hours before they were able to arrest her and her other accomplices and that they will require one more week to complete their investigations hence their application for the accused persons to be remanded.
Defence lawyer Daniel Awuku’s prayer for bail was premised on the fact that his clients have a fix place of residence and that they are prepared to meet any conditions that the court will impose on them. He also proposed that the immigration authorities can go ahead and seize the passports of his clients if they so desire.
However, the presiding judge says he is not satisfied with the prayer of the defence lawyer assuring that his clients will not interfere with investigations. He subsequently remanded them into Nsawam prison custody until the next court sitting set for the 23rd of May 2017.
Previous Arrest
Some national security operatives, on July 30, 2016, raided various gold mining sites to impound excavators and a pickup vehicle belonging to the Chinese woman that were being used for the illegal mining operation.
She and her assigns had degraded lands, destroyed cocoa farms and polluted water bodies in several communities in the Amansie area, and the national security, in an attempt to clamp down on her activities, raided the sites.
At Gyaaman village, the activities of the Chinese galamsey operator allegedly left six children dead after the victims drowned in open pits.
However, the Ashanti Regional Security Council, then headed by John Alexander Ackon found it expedient to release the four excavators and the Toyota pickup to the galamsey miner to the chagrin of the local residents and owners of the mining concessions, Volta Resources Limited.
