Aisha Huang comment: Minority to file vote of censure against Senior Minister

The Minority in Parliament has threatened to pass a Ministerial censure on the Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Maafo over his justification of the Akufo Addo government’s decision to deport Chinese galamsey kingpin Aisha Huang and not rather prosecute her.

Mr Yaw Osafo Maafo is heard in a widely-circulated video during a Town Hall meeting abroad saying, 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 Ranking Member on Parliamentary Committee on Constitution and Legal Affairs, Inusah Fuseini in an interview stated that the comments made by the Senior Minister are unfortunate and embarrassing for which reason he must be sanctioned.

“You cannot flout our laws with impunity, the fact that the Senior Minister has found it necessary and fit to say that in his view what the country need is the deportation of Aisha Huang and not punishing her consistent with the laws of the country can only be described as a very unfortunate statement.

“I have been looking at the constitution and the Standing Orders, I’ve been asking myself whether this is not an appropriate case of Ministerial censure because the Minister clearly has not only embarrassed the country but also evidently shown that they can burn the country’s laws with impunity. We must not encourage any Minister not even the President to bend the laws of this country with impunity.”