According to the former lawmaker who represented the Berekum constituency in the 3rd and 4th parliaments of the 4th republic, the offence for which his client is currently being prosecuted is just a “small matter” that happens every day in Ghana, so he is surprised that the media has chosen to blow it out of proportion.
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Media has overhyped this small matter of illegal mining – Aisha’s lawyer Effah Dartey (video)
Nkrabea Effah Dartey, the lawyer for Chinese 'galamsey' kingpin Aisha Huang, has faulted the Ghanaian media for what he refers to as overhyping the re-entry of his client into Ghana to resume the same illegal mining and its related activities for which she was supposed to have been deported in 2018.
Nkrabea Effah Dartey
Speaking to journalists after the Accra Circuit Court had remanded his client again for two weeks, Effah Dartey said that the media is creating a false sense of insecurity over such a simple matter of Aisha illegally re-entering the country to violate its laws.
“My worry is that the media has overhyped this small matter of mining without a license and doing mineral sales without a license. It’s a small matter and it happens every day in Ghana, so I don’t see why the media should even write an editorial on this matter, and it is that which is creating a problem and giving all manner of insecurity to the issue,” the New Patriotic Party legal practitioner lamented.
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Answering a question of how his client found her way back into Ghana, Effah Dartey said the Immigration service must be blamed.
Ms Huang is being tried on two charges by the state for engaging in the sale and purchase of minerals without a valid license and mining without a license.
She appeared before the court on Wednesday, September 14, 2022, with three others, and spoke through an interpreter.
The Chinese ‘galamsey’ queen has dominated the major news headlines for the past week after she was recaptured in the Ashanti Region.
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Speaking on her re-arrest after her supposed repatriation from Ghana in 2018, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said he isn’t aware if she was indeed repatriated.
“I’m not still sure whether she was in fact deported. Or whether she fled the country the first time and has now come back. There still seems to be some uncertainty about it.
“But whichever way it is, she’s become the sort of nickname for all that galamsey represents.
“We have concerted to work at it. We need to have the coorporation of the courts. Until recently when I came, the punishment for people caught was relatively light. [But] we’ve changed the law to stiffen the punishment for people caught,” the President said in an interview with Volta Region-based radio station.
Currently, there are conflicting accounts of whether Aisha was indeed repatriated, deported, or fled the country.
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