Some workers of the Koforidua Circuit Court “B” had the shock of their lives when some nine Chinese nationals who were brought before the court for alleged illegal mining smoked in the presence of observers.
This was after they were granted a bill of GHS 100,000 each with one surety, the Ghana News Agency (GNA) reports.
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A woman who is also suspected to be Chinese was with them doing all the necessary arrangements for the bill.
People at the court were shocked about the action of the Chinese and wondered why the authorities could not ask them to stop smoking in public since it violates the section 58 of the Public Health Act, 2012, Act 851.
The Act stated that ‘A person shall not smoke tobacco or a tobacco product or hold a lighted tobacco product in an enclosed or indoor area of a work place, or any other public place except in a designated area’, as stated by the section 58 of the Public Health Act,2012, Act 851.
It also mentioned the public place to include but not limited to the following places; all workplaces like the factories, and offices, restaurants, pubs, places where children are cared for, health and educational institutions, cinemas, shopping malls, markets, recreational areas, stadia, public transport vehicles, transport terminals and places of collective use.
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The Chinese nationals were arrested in a joint swoop by the anti-galamsey taskforce and the Forestry Commission in the New Abirem District of the Eastern Region on Monday, September 4, 2017.
They have since been handed to the Eastern Regional Police Command.
The suspected illegal miners were Johnsun Zhang 29, Weng Zheng hon 55, Weng Zhi Dong 47, Tony Tony Yin 47, Cheng Sheng Xhi 61, Zao Wen Lu 43, Lui Zhang Hai 49, Wang Zhi Gong 47 and Shi Zhi Hai 49.
The Ghanaians involved are Akare Thompson 39 and Maxwell Anin 34 years.
They were charged with the offence to commit a crime, mining without license and possession of a firearm in the court presided over by Ms. Mercy Kotei.