Careless officials are the ones helping Aisha Huang to dribble Ghana – Ivan Kyei Innocent
Outspoken Social Commentator, Ivan Kyei Innocent minced no words in expressing his lack of confidence in the government’s fight against illegal mining.
During a discussion on the Active Morning Show on Thursday, September 8, 2022, and using Chinese galamsey queen Aisha Huang reappearance in the scene, he said “this exposes how rotten our system is”.
He recalled Aisha Huang’s first arrest in 2018 where she was later deported with the then Senior Minister Yaw Osarfo Marfo boldly using the country’s bilateral relationship with China as the reason. He said at the time that prosecuting Ms Huang could affect the relationship and derail Ghana’s chances of securing benefits from the Asian powerhouse.
Ivan kyei Innocent slammed the justification from the then Minister saying, “She was supposed to be arrested but she was defended by a silly explanation by the Senior Minister because of bilateral relations”.
This according to him has emboldened the Chinese to perfect the act of illegal mining and traced the root cause to them being aided by some Ghanaians.
He also questioned some of the authorities on how Aisha Huang has been in the Ashanti Region all this while saying “can they tell me she did not know she was in Kumasi she was aided, abetted and connived with officialdom did they care”.
He then criticized politicians for only engaging in a face-saving campaign to cover the lack of commitment to tackling the issue.
For him most of these communities have been engaged in these acts for years and generations and would take a lot to fight the situation. He also indicated that “if you are weaning people off galamsey you must give an alternative”.
“Everything points to the fact that those that do galamsey are mostly politicians these are some of the things we need to fight,” he added.
To him, the Aisha Huang issues that have become quite topical in national discourse are just a minute fraction of the whole situation.
Another canker he said that posed a difficulty in dealing with the situation is the presence of some people wielding powers including some politicians engaging in the act of illegal mining who he said are using some of the monies accrued to fund political parties and have made it difficult for the government to have the balls to fight this canker.
