OccupyGhana, a pressure group, has expressed worry at how long it took the government to realise that the Chinese ‘galamsey’ queen, Aisha Huang should not have been deported.
The group was surprised at how the government could have had it wrong after the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo admitted that the deportation should not have happened.
This was contained in a press statement issued and signed by the pressure group on Thursday in Accra.
According to the statement, an understanding of the situation only came after it had happened for almost two years, before the government realised how bad a mistake it was.
“Ghanaians knew right from the start that it was a mistake and said so to the government, which they ignored, making this regret very little and very late,” it said.
The statement indicated that, although there was legislative amendment that enhanced the punishment regime for mining-related offences which might deter some from engaging in galamsey, they did not see how that would prevent the repetition of the government’s mistake.
“We take these positions because there was sufficient basis, at the time of the decision, to show the deportation without trial would hurt and weaken the fight against illegal mining,” the statement noted.
Certainly, the government was aware of the message that Act gave to the whole world, the law would be enforced against citizens, but foreigners who breach the same law would be flown to their countries to sleep in the comfort of their beds and enjoy their illegal made-in-Ghana galamsey booty,” it added.
It said, the matter involving Aisha Huang and the government’s handling of it contradicted the president’s numerous pledges to fight galamsey, and was the most obvious indicator that the government’s commitment to the anti-galamsey fight had been at best half-hearted.
The statement indicated that the group expected the president to order that all persons who had been arrested for being involved in galamsey, especially the foreign nationals who were routinely simply handed over to immigration for deportation instead of standing trial, should be put before trial right away.
“This ‘on hindsight mistake’ has been a rather unfortunate, deflating and regrettable phase in the fight against galamsey, and a slap in the face of Ghanaians. We expect that all subsequent acts will match the realisation of the titanic mistake we made with Aisha Huang and more recently with Huang Yanfeng,” it added.
BY TIMES REPORTER
