Kwame Anyimadu-Antwi,the Chairman of Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee of Parliament, has maintained that Parliament will not bow to pressure and be intimidated by threats to compel the plenary to pass the anti-gay bill.
He stated that pressure and threats would not compel them to pass the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill.
Mr Anyimadu-Antwi cautioned that Parliament would not entertain intimidation, pressure and threats by what some people were saying to pass the bill even though the Committee had received 124 memoranda.
“We will not be intimidated, threatened and pressured to pass the bill because they cannot compel us to pass a bill into law that needs fine-tuning and report to the plenary when Parliament reconvenes on October 29, 2021,” he stressed.
Mr Anyimadu-Antwi also disagreed with Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin’s statement that the bill would not have any financial implications for the country’s budget however, the Committee had been tasked by the Speaker to review the bill and present a report to the plenary when Parliament resumes.
He indicated that eight Members of Parliament (MPs) jointly submitted a private bill to push for the criminalisation of LGBTQI+ activities in the country which was presented to Mr Bagbin on June 29, 2021 and the proponents wanted the promotion, advocacy, funding, and acts of homosexuality to be criminalised.
Mr Bagbin had given the bill the green light as not having such implications which Mr Anyimadu-Antwi disagreed with, insisting “that decision the Speaker made, I do not agree with that because if you criminalise the law and persons are sentenced to prison, who is going to feed them, so it affects the national purse”.
Some groups have submitted memoranda and issued intimidated statements, threats and pressurised persons who stand in the way of the bill and the Church of Pentecost had in a memoranda to the committee cautioned the government regarding the legislation against LGBTQI+ and related activities in the country.
Apostle Eric Nyamekye, National Chairman of the church, noted that the church would vote out any political party that stood against the passage of the bill since the 1992 Constitution barred MPs from introducing bills that would have financial implications.–myjoyonline.com
