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Chinese galamsey kingpin, Aisha Huang, has been in the news recently following her arrest for galamsey-related activities.

According to multiple reports on the arrest, it was done through a discrete national security operation because she normally flees the country when she picks up information of her imminent arrest.

However, the Small Scale Miners Association, have put out a different narrative.

In an interview with Joy FM on September 7, the group’s president, Michael Kojo Preprah said Aisha Huang was nabbed while chasing debtors.

“She (Aisha Huang) has been here but then the reason why she was even arrested was not through the state. She was in a house and when she was deported, the house or the landlord owed her some money. Unfortunately, that house was also rented out to a different Chinese lady. She went there to threaten the woman and through that she was reported and arrested,” he stated.

Michael Kojo Preprah also mentioned that Aisha Huang arrived in Ghana six months after she was deported.

According to him, members of the Association sighted the galamsey kingpin in Dadieso, engaging in trade activities.

He added that she had been moving in and out of the country once things get tough for her in Ghana.

“After six months [of deportation], she was sighted around Dadieso. As a matter of fact, in that enclave, there is a mining activity going on. She was having her activities close to the Côte d’Ivoire border and when things become tough, she would go to Côte d’Ivoire and when things come down, she comes back to Ghana. She stayed there for a while then she moved to Mali and she later decided to come back to settle here. That is how come she came on a Togolese visa,” he said.

Like many others who have spoken on the subject matter, Michael Kojo Preprah believes Aisha Huang has the backing of politicians to engage in her illicit activities.

“For her to even come back to this country and to engage in the same activity you should understand that there are some big shots behind it because she herself is not super powerful. There are politicians who find her as a money bag and in so doing do everything in their own possible way to protect her,” he stated.

Aisha Huang was recently arrested for reentry into the country and engaging in galamsey-related activities. She is reported to have entered the country via the Togo boarder after her deportation.

She has since been remanded and is set to make a court appearance with three others on September 14. The Attorney General’s office has also assured that it will prosecute Aisha Huang for her past and present crimes.
It will be recalled that Aisha Huang gained notoriety as an illegal mining kingpin in 2017.

She was arrested for the same conduct but later deported with the state discontinuing the trial against her.

Justifying why the state had to deport the Chinese national, the Senior Minister, Nana Yaw Osafo Maafo, addressing some concerns of Ghanaians in the diaspora at a town hall meeting on April 18, 2019, revealed that, "Putting [Aisha Huang] in jail in Ghana is not going to solve your money problem. It is not going to make you happy or me happy."

But President Akufo-Addo in 2019 said the deportation of the Chinese galamsey kingpin was a ‘mistake’.