…NDC MP tells Akufo-Addo’s lawyer
The Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, aka, anti-gay Bill, will definitely pass into law says National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for South Dayi, Hon. Rockson Nelson Defiamekpor, who has advised opponents of the bill to go to the Supreme Court when it is passed.
The Legislator, therefore, tells President Akufo-Addo’s personal Lawyer, Akoto Ampaw, who is leading a small band of middle-class crusaders against the Bill to wait and go to the Supreme Court for repeal if he is not happy about the Bill.
“If they are not happy with our decision, they should go to the Supreme Court. It’s as simple as that,” Hon. Defiamekpor told Kwame Nkrumah Tikesie on Accra-based Okay FM, Wednesday.
Already, the Bill is before the Constitutional and Legal Committee of Parliament after going through the first reading.
The Committee says it is receiving memos from Ghanaians to enhance its decision on the bill.
Over 300 memos have so far been received, with studies showing that over 97% of Ghanaians are against liberalized LGBTQ++ environment in Ghana.
But Akoto Ampaw, who appears to be angling for the legalization of homosexuality and lesbianism in Ghana on behalf of President Akufo-Addo, marshalled a band of 18 Ghanaian intellectuals and middle-class activists against the Bill.
According to a memo that they have sent to Parliament, the Bill tramples on the human rights of LGBTQI+ practitioners in the country.
Akoto Ampaw and the pro-gay crusaders had placed the anti-gay Bill in the same basket as superstitious practices such as the Trokosi slavery system and the reservation of a so-called Witches Camp in Gambaga for women suspected of witchcraft.
The crusaders say the Bill discriminates against a minority group.
But responding, Hon. Defiamekpor pointed out that Akoto Ampaw’s sudden newfound love for defending minorities is hypocritical. The President’s lawyer, he points out is from the Santrokofi, Akpafu and Lolobi (SALL) area who have been deprived right of parliamentary representation by the Akufo-Addo government acting in connivance with the Electoral Commission.
“If you speak of a minority group in this country, the minority is supposed to be identifiable, it is not any imaginary minority. So we want to know who these minority groups for whose rights he is fighting for are…Mr. Akoto Ampaw hails from SALL, but they don’t have a Member of Parliament, but I have never heard him talk about it in this country, so SALL people they don’t have rights, they don’t have freedoms,” Hon Dafeamekpor said.
He adds that “In any case, they have brought us a Memo, we will listen to them and we will do our work after that.”