Following the imprisonment of two illegal miners for unlawfully entering and mining in a forest reserve in the Ashanti Region, Prof H. Kwasi Prempeh, Executive Director of the Centre for Democratic Development ( CDD-Ghana), has lashed out at the justice delivery system, saying that imprisonment was only meant for poor Ghanaians while rich offenders often escape jail.
“Jail as punishment for galamsey is obviously reserved for poor Ghanaians,” Prof Prempeh wrote on Facebook page sighted by betterghanadigest.com.
His criticism comes at a time high profile personalities implicated in illegal mining such as Aisha Huang and Halen Huang have been set free and deported back to China when the laws allow them to face prosecution in Ghana
In the specific case of Aisha Huang, a Chinese, deemed to be the galamsey Queen, was only deported even in the face of overwhelming evidence.
Justifying the decision to have her deported, Senior Minister Yaw Osafo-Marfo stated that the Accra High Court did no wrong in freeing embattled Chinese galamsey.