The controversy swells in Ghana around Aisha Huang, accused of illicit exploitation of minerals and resources. This Chinese businesswoman was arrested in 2017 before leaving the country under unclear circumstances. This year, the so-called “queen of gold trafficking” returned to Ghana and reportedly resumed the same activities.
Aisha Huang appeared in the Special Criminal Court in Accra this week along with three other Chinese nationals. This businesswoman, accused of the same offenses as five years ago, raises many questions in Ghanaian public opinion.
First there is the question of his departure, in 2017, after his arrest for exploiting gold and timber in the Ashanti region. The government said she had been deported, before claiming that she had been repatriated by China itself. Position immediately denied by the Ghanaian justice, for whom Huang simply fled the country. Height of confusion: the president Nana Akufo-Addo had to admit to the press that he did not know whether Huang had been deported or repatriated.
If the case takes on such a scale, it is also because Huang is accused of complacency with the Ghanaian authorities. This is explained by Adam Bonna, security expert:
” It seems that she is in cahoots with some state officials and apart from that she seems so bold that she has managed to do her job with impunity: deplete our forest resources, pollute our bodies of water with all kinds of dangerous chemicals and, even more, to deforest our cocoa trees. Cocoa is the country’s main cash crop. I don’t think a Ghanaian can go to China and do a hundredth of what Aisha Huang and her fellow Chinese are doing in Ghana, and walk free. »
If Aisha Huang seems “untouchable”, it is because according to some newspapers, she allegedly blackmailed politicians with a sexual video. She, for her part, proclaims her innocence. The Minister of Information did not wish to answer our questions. On the opposition side, the NDC recognizes that the file is not sufficiently substantiated and fears that the case will be closed. The next hearing will resume on September 27.