Former Secretary to the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), Mr. Charles Bissue, says there was some suspicion that Aisha Huang returned to Ghana a few weeks after she was repatriated in 2018.
“We had wind about two or three weeks later that she has actually come back into the country. Somebody informed us so we, in turn, spoke to the then CID boss… and she swiftly sent men to check if she is back into the country,” Mr. Bissue recounted on Eyewitness News.
“What we heard was that the lady had returned into the country through Togo… we couldn’t actually find her, but then we acted upon it,” he added.
Mr. Bissue, however, noted that the suspicions were never confirmed.
“I cannot actually place my hands on my heart to say that it was a hoax or was it true or not. With this information, once it comes to notice, you notify the appropriate authorities, and they trigger their investigation.”
“Talking to you now, I could not substantiate if it was a hoax or if it was something that was true,” he added.
There have been several claims about how Aisha Huang, left the country in 2018 and when she re-entered.
Despite the government providing evidence of a repatriation notice and the Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, saying she was repatriated, the prosecutors in court on Wednesday stated that Aisha Huang sneaked out of Ghana after her arrest in 2017.
The initial reporting on the case was that she had been deported in 2018 after filing a nolle prosequi to discontinue an earlier case against her.
But North Tongu MP, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, claimed Aisha Huang was not escorted during her “supposed deportation” as was required.
In the days after Mr. Ablakwa’s comments, President Akufo-Addo also said he was unsure whether Aisha Huang was deported from Ghana in 2018 or fled.
This prompted the government to share documents indicating she was given a notice of repatriation in December 2018.
She and her four accomplices have been slapped with four new charges at the High Court.