Aisha Huang was not left off the hook because of $2bn Sinohydro deal – Govt

The Akufo Addo government says it is not true that the trial of Chinese illegal mining kinping Aisha Huang was terminated because of the $2bn Sinohydro barter with the Chinese.

At a Press conference organized by the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources in Accra today, the Minister Kwaku Asoma-Cheremeh said government took that decision to ensure sanity in the sector.

The Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Marfo has come under heavy backlash with many including the Minority in Parliament calling for his dismissal after he told a Ghanaian gathering at a town hall meeting abroad that due to the now good relationship Ghana now has with China, it does not serve any Ghanaian interest to have Aisha Huang jailed in Ghana for illegal mining, where she’s alleged to have committed the crime in connivance with several others.

“We have a very good relationship with China. Today, the main company that is helping develop the infrastructure system in Ghana is Sinohydro, it is a Chinese Company. It is the one that is going to help process our bauxite and provide about two billion dollars to us.”

“So when there are these kinds of arrangements, there are other things behind the scenes. Putting that lady (Aisha) in jail in Ghana is not going to solve your economic problems. It is not going to make you happy or me happy, that’s not important, the most important thing is that she has been deported from Ghana…”

“…I am saying that there are many other things beyond what we see in these matters and everybody is wide awake, the most important thing is that we have banned this, we have established regulations and we are protecting our environment. That is far more important than one Chinese woman who has been deported out of the country”.

But the Lands and Natural Resources Minister at today’s press conference stated that Aisha Huang had no connection to the Chinese deal.

“I know and I’ve been briefed that Aisha Huang was not part of the discussion and the people they met in China talking about this loan. We did not sacrifice her or exchange her for the loan, this lady was in Ghana prior to the arrangment we made with the Chinese government to secure the assistance from them.

“No government official thought of shielding her, no goverment official pampered her. There’s nobody in the NPP that dreamt of dealing with Aisha in one way or the other so that she can perpetrate the illegal mining she was found doing in Ghana so as to enable Ghana secure the loan from Chinese government.”