The Ranking Member on the Foreign Affairs Committee says the security chiefs responsible for briefing President Akufo-Addo on happenings in the country need to be sanctioned.

Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said they are not telling the President the truth with regards to Aisha Huang's return.

The North Tongu legislator a failure to punish such persons would leave more to be desired.

"Is it these revelations that we are putting out that are causing him to now backtrack and look for some safe landing of a sort?

"What is going on if the president is left confused? What has he done to those appointees who are making him confused and misleading him?"

"Those appointees who are in charge of our national security who cannot assure the president if Aisha Huang was deported or if she fled, why are those people still keeping their job? Or is it the case those in authority including the president are neck-deep in this?,” he said in an interview on Joy FM on Tuesday, September 13.

Mr Ablakwa’s comments come on the back of President Akufo-Addo’s comments that he is unsure if the accused was deported when initially arrested in 2017.

The President, in an interview on a Ho-based radio station on Monday, September 12, as part of his tour of the Volta Region, said he is not sure about how Aisha Huang left the country.

“I’m still not sure whether she was in fact deported. Or whether she fled the country the first time and has now come back. There still seems to be some uncertainty about it.

“But whichever way it is, she’s become the sort of nickname for all that galamsey represents”, the President said.

President Akufo-Addo has since been severely criticised for his comment, which has been described, among others, as a “mockery” of the security architecture.

Aisha Huang stoked controversy when she was first arrested in 2017 for engaging in unlawful activity.

The 47-year-old Chinese national was subsequently deported in 2019 by government, a move which triggered questions about Ghana’s commitment to eradicating the menace.

The announcement of her re-arrest within the country’s borders has since reignited this concern.

Meanwhile, she is expected to appear before an Accra High Court today, Wednesday, September 14.