Promoters of the Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, popularly referred to as the Anti-LGBTQ+ Bill, have threatened to Mention the names of MPs who are frustrating the passage of the Bill by Parliament if it is further delayed.
“Those who have gone and gotten influenced by persons interested in LGBTQ should return whatever influence they have collected because we will fight and the next time, we address the media, I will mention names. I have been impressed upon my co-sponsors not to mention names today but next time I will mention names,” a leading member of the promoters told the press.
It came down to a showdown in Parliament on Wednesday as the House failed to take the Bill listed on the Order Paper for some time now to go through the consideration stage.
The Spokesperson for the Sponsors of the Bill, Samuel George, did not take it kindly on the Floor of the House when Hon. Joseph Osei Owusu, the Presiding Speaker on Wednesday, December 6, 2023, declined the invitation for the House to consider the Bill in the absence of the Chairman of the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Kwame Anyimadu Antwi, the MP for Asante Akyim Central.
Outside the Chamber, the Member of Parliament for Ningo Prapram, George Samuel Nartey addressed a press conference on behalf of the Bill sponsors where he expressed the displeasure of the group about the undue delay of the Bill in Parliament.
According to him, some deliberate delay tactics are being deployed by some elements in leadership positions of the House to ensure that the Bill does not get passed. He therefore indicated that they were no longer going to tolerate dragging of feet on this matter but would go ahead to expose who are behind this delay.
“We are very aware of people in leadership on the Majority side who are reaching out to the sponsors of the Bill asking us to step down the Bill. Is that why the Majority side is fighting against the Bill?” he quizzed.
“The excuse given today that the Chairman of the Committee is not in the Chamber so we can’t take the amendment is alien to the practice of this House because the Ranking Member was present,” he added.
The Chairman of the Constitutional, Legal, and Parliamentary Affairs Committee, Kwame Anyimadu Antwi, Speaking to Parliament News360 in an interview later, denied the accusation that he and some other elements in leadership on the Majority side of the House are deliberately delaying the passage of the Bill which has been before the House for the past three years.
He explained that he was not privy to any agreement between the Speaker and the Leadership of the House to work on the Bill and he has deliberately stayed away from the House as has been alleged. According to him, he was absent from the House because the Minister for Interior had delegated him to represent him at a ceremony for the Ghana National Fire Service.
Besides that, he said, “If we start today, there is no way we can finish these amendments before this meeting ends. So, why should I start? At any rate, if he says it is their Bill, he should not accuse the wrong person. Nobody has said they don’t want it to go on. If leadership agrees that we should go ahead with the consideration stage then so be it. But there are other quizzes that we need to finish up and we need one meeting to finish it up.”
Source: Clement Akoloh||parliamentnews360.com
