Private legal practitioner Bobby Banson has raised doubt about the identity of Aisha Huang and whether the Chinese woman currently in custody and being prosecuted is the same notorious galamsey kingpin.
She was arrested in May, 2017 under the name Aisha Huang and charged with undertaking illegal mining in the country and allegedly deported.
She was, however, re-arrested in 2022 bearing different names, En Huang and Ruixia Huang on her documents.
Aisha, who gained notoriety and was tagged Galamsey Queen has reportedly been in the country operating at an illegal mining site, until her arrest in Kumasi by National Security operatives and is currently standing trial.
The arrest and subsequent revelation that the woman who was supposedly deported back to her native China four years ago had sneaked back into the country and was engaged in illegal mining has raised a lot of eyebrows.
Speaking on TV3’s analytical show The Key Point on Saturday 17th September 2022 Mr. Banson questioned whether the woman in custody is the true Aisha Huang who was deported in 2018.
According to him, per Ghana’s migration laws, which are very clear, a person cannot be deported from the country without an Executive Instrument (E.I.) by the Minister of Interior.
He noted that when the Chinese woman was arrested and reportedly deported by the government and yet nothing of an E.I. for her deportation was issued he became very suspicious.
“When I waited and didn’t hear any such E.I. I knew there was something fishy going on,” he said.
Aisha Huang’s case touched a lot of cords and compelled President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to state he was not sure whether she was deported or repatriated.
Mr. Banson, however, argued the woman could not have been repatriated as the President sought to suggest because that action can only be taken by the Director of Immigration (Now the Controller-General of the Ghana Immigration Service.)
According to him, even such action should have been documented and the airlines should made aware of her presence on their flights.
Mr. Banson also raised red flags about the charges preferred against Aisha Huang and indicated he became worried when he read the first changes because it was limited only to minor offences and argued there were serious offences in breach of Ghana’s Immigration Act.
He wondered whether these offences were deliberately left out in order not to rope in a lot more people in view of the fact that the woman, as a foreigner required Ghanaian collaborators for visa acquisition, residential address, and transport from the airport among others when entering the country.
These things, he said, could only be done by Ghanaians to facilitate Aisha Huang’s return into the country and indicated her presence raises questions but her prosecution on minor offences raises even more questions.