Assistant Superintendent of Immigration, (ASI), Daniel Afrifa Adu, has told the High Court in Accra that two out of three passports retrieved from galamsey kingpin Aisha Huang bear her image but with different names and dates of birth.
The two passports he said have also different names as – En Huang (G39575625) and Huang Ruxia (EE9994609) but had the image of the same Aisha Huang.
The third passport he said bears the Wang Xiaoyu (G61738631).
Aisha Huang has been slapped with four charges namely; undertaking a mining operation without a licence, facilitating the participation of persons engaged in a mining operation, illegal employment of foreign nationals, and entering Ghana while prohibited from re-entering.
She has pleaded not guilty and has since been remanded into prisons custody while the trial is ongoing.
Appearing before the Criminal Court Five in Accra to testify while being led by Principal State Attorney, Mercy Arthur Director of Public Prosecutions, to give his Evidence-in-Chief, ASI Afrifa Adu, gave account of the role he played.
He told the court that at about 05:30 am on September 2, 2022, he received a call from his Officer in Charge, (OIC), Assistant Commissioner of Immigration, (ACI), Alfred Fiifi Ocran with instructions to call a Defence Intelligence Officer (DIO) to liaise with him to execute an intelligence led operation.
ASI Afrifa Adu said, he called the said Officer and introduced himself as the Immigration Officer who had been assigned to liaise with him.
He told the court that the officer directed him to meet him in a residence near Ahodwo roundabout and met the Officer together with his team and “we received a briefing from the DIO on the operation.”
“The DIO and his team had arrested three (3) persons – Huang Lei, Jiang Lihua, En Huang – who were in their custody,” he explained.
“They also had in their custody, three passports bearing the following names and passport numbers: En Huang (G39575625), Huang Ruxia (EE9994609) and Wang Xiaoyu (G61738631), one safe metal box, a Ghanaian non-citizen card and other Chinese identities and several ATM cards.
“The passports were handed over to my team to identify the said bearers of the passports,” he told the court.
“After matching the images of the passports and physical features of the three persons, one person was identified as En Huang aka Aisha Huang who was the owner of two out of the three passports bearing the names En Huang (G39575625), Huang Ruxia (EE9994609),” ASI Afrifa Adu noted.
“Even-though, the two passports had different names and dates of birth, they had the same photograph of En Huang (Aisha Huang),” he told the court.
Search at residence
The witness said in the course of a search at the residence, “we found a fourth person, Huang Hai Hua, who was also arrested. In his possession was a metal safe box which was also retrieved.”
ASI Afrifa Adu said, his team together with the DIO and his team then proceeded to the fourth battalion infantry with the accused person and the 3 other persons and the two metal safe boxes.
“The commanding officer Lt. Col. Kwesi Ware Peprah gave us an escort to the Ashanti Regional GIS Command,” he stated.
“On arrival, I was directed by my Officer in charge to take the accused person and the three other persons to Accra which I did in the company of two officers from GIS, the DIO and his team.
“The team handed over the four persons to the National Security Secretariat,” he noted from his witness statement filed on October 24, last year.
Following the adoption of his witness statement, the witness was subjected to cross examination by the defense led by Lawyer Miracle Attachey and has been discharged.
The court presided over by Her Ladyship Justice Lydia Osei Marfo, sitting at the Criminal Court 5, has adjourned the case to April 17 for the Prosecution to call its 10th Witness.
