Former Deputy General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Obiri Boahen, has accused the erstwhile Mahama government of issuing an indefinite resident permit to Chinese galamsey kingpin, Aisha Huang.
In an interview with Okay FM on September 16, the former NPP scribe berated the opposition National Democratic Congress over the politicization of prosecution of the Chinese national and the consequent doubt it cast on same.
On his substantive accusation, Obiri Boahen said Aisha Huang was granted the resident permit in 2015 even though she had hitherto been trying to acquire one during the tenure of President Kufuor.
“Would you believe that on 28th March 2015 Aisha Huang was given an indefinite resident permit here in Ghana? Meaning she lives here in perpetuity. This was done during NDC’s time. President Mahama’s government gave Aisha Huang the permit on 28th March 2015. Meanwhile, she was unsuccessful to get the permit during President Kufuor’s time,” he said.
There have been varied accounts on whether or not Aisha Huang left the country in 2018 after the state filed a nolle prosequi in a case involving her.
While government has maintained that she left the shores of the country, state prosecutors in her recent case have said that she sneaked out of the country.
President Nana Akufo-Addo also in an interview on a Ho-based radio station cast doubts on whether Aisha Huang was deported or she fled the country.
The president said: “I am not still sure whether she was, in fact, deported or whether she fled the country the first time and has now come back or whatever. There still seems to be some uncertainty about it”.
The comment by the president has raised several eyebrows with the Minority pushing for a full-blown probe into the circumstances of Aisha Huang’s ‘deportation’.
Meanwhile, Aisha Huang has been denied bail together with her three accomplices. They have been remanded in custody for two weeks. Last Friday, the AG filed four new charges against Ms. Huang, one of which relates to reentering the country illegally.