I never engaged in illegal mining — Aisha Huang

En Huang aka Aisha Huang, the Chinese said to be engaged in illegal mining, ‘galamsey’ in the country has denied facilitating or engaging in any mining activities in Ghana.

En Huang, who mounted the witness box last Monday to open her defence in the trial in which she has been accused of engaging in mining without licence, said allegations that she was engaged in mining were not true but a ploy by the state witnesses to play into media narratives against her.

“Neither my company nor myself have engaged in mining or facilitated mining in any form by any person or group of persons.

“I do not know and have not been to any of the sites captured in the videos, pictures and maps tendered in evidence by the prosecution witnesses,” the accused told the court presided over by Justice Lydia Osei Marfo. 

En Huang told the court that due to her long stay in Ghana and her supermarket, Aisha Supermarket, which served Chinese customers at Ahodwo in Kumasi, she became the go-to person and a place of safe custody for most of her colleague Chinese, saying although she knew the four alleged accomplices, they did not work for her. 

She added that the four alleged accomplices — all Chinese arrested at a mining site at Bepotenten — were not her employees. 

En Huang, who is currently on remand, further told the court that she followed up on the arrest of  Gao Jin Cheng, Lu Qi Jun, Haib Gao and Zhang Zhipeng because they were her countrymen whose presence in the region she knew about, adding that she was only called by the police when the four were arrested.

Reacting to evidence given by farmers who had told the court that she engaged one James Ogbey to purchase their lands for mining activities, En Huang, told the court that she never engaged Mr Ogbey for any parcel of land for mining.

“Neither myself, nor my company, own or hired any excavators, changfans or the other earth moving machines allegedly found at sites the four Chinese men were arrested,” she said. 

En Huang has been accused of being in the thick of affairs of galamsey, especially in the Ashanti Region.

She was deported from Ghana in 2018, after the Attorney-General decided to discontinue her trial in which she was accused of engaging in small-scale mining without licence.

However, she was said to have sneaked back into Ghana to allegedly engage in the same activities for which she was deported.

The A-G, Godfred Yeboah Dame, then decided to prosecute her for the alleged crimes before her deportation and new ones committed since her re-entry into Ghana.

It is the case of the prosecution that Aisha had an illegal mining concession at Bepotenten in the Amansie West District in the Ashanti Region and also operated a mining support services company.

She has pleaded not guilty to undertaking a mining operation without a licence, facilitating the participation of persons engaged in a mining operation, the illegal employment of foreigners and entering Ghana while prohibited from re-entry.