Ending fight against 'Galamsey' : Occupy Ghana urges government to apply the law

Pressure group, Occupy Ghana is asking the government enforce the law if it intends to end the fight against the illegal mining menace. 

The group's admonishing comes in the wake of the sentencing of infamous Chinese ‘Galamsey’ Queen, En Huang. 

In a statement Tuesday, December 5, 2023, Occupy Ghana said: “All the saga and drama were avoidable. All that the Government was required to do was to allow the law to take its course, right from the onset. We repeat our advice to the Government in our press statement dated 4 May 2021 that all the efforts to end illegal mining will achieve nothing until we resolve to simply enforce the law. If the security agencies make arrests and the law is not applied, it weakens their resolve and says to all that we are not serious about ending this menace."

The group further urged the Judiciary to try illegal mining cases with swiftness “so that Ghanaians can see results in real-time.”

“It cannot be business as usual. We repeat our message to the Government that ‘if you want to win the fight against Galamsey, APPLY THE LAW.”

Popularly referred to as Aisha Huang, and known for her notoriety for engaging in illegal mining, Ms.Huang was sentenced on Tuesday by the Court presided over by Justice Lydia Osei-Marfo for offences she committed between 2015 and 2017 before she was first deported in 2018.

Delivering her judgment, Justice Lydia Osie-Marfo said even though she had wished to sentence Ms. Huang to more years, she was limited in her powers to do so as at the time the accused was charged, the current Minerals and Mining (Amendment) Act, 2019 (Act 995), which imposes a punishment of up to 25  years to prison had not yet been passed. And so she was forced to do so under Act 900, which imposes a maximum of five years’ jail term for engaging in illegal mining. 

It was the view of the trial judge that Article 19 (6) of the Constitution prohibits a penalty from being imposed for a criminal offence that is severer in degree or description than the maximum penalty that could have been imposed for that offense at the time that it was committed. 

But the Attorney-General has said it intends to appeal the judgment of the court.

"Whilst applauding the efficiency of the justice delivery system witnessed in the trial of Aisha Huang, the Attorney General will, however, test the soundness of the decision of the trial court to punish the accused person under Act 900, by filing an appeal at the Court of Appeal, against the sentence to ensure that the new sentencing regime imposed by Act 995 is applied to the accused person," the AG said in a statement yesterday.