Anti-gay bill: I’ll resign as C’ttee Chair if Minority thinks I’m not making it work – Anyimadu-Antwi 

Chairman of the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee, Kwame Anyimadu-Antwi has said that there are other lawyers in Parliament who can occupy his position as Chair of the Committee therefore, he will resign if the Minority thinks he is not making the anti-gay bill that is currently before the House work.

He wondered why the rush by sponsors of the bill to get it approved by the House.

Speaking in interview with Eric Mawuena Egbeta on the Hot Edition on 3FM, Friday June 10, he said “…If they continue like this, I think there are other lawyers in the House, if they think that personally Kwame Anyimadu-Antwi is not making the bill work, I will resign as the chairman and they get another person to proceed with the bill.

“This is a Private Members Bill, I do not know why the urgency about this. There is already a law under our Criminal Offences Act about unnatural canal knowledge. People even think that this bill, we are trying to actually give a right to the lesbians and the gay community, it is rather the opposite. What they are asking is that they should be punished up to an imprisonment of five years even if you associate.”

His comments come after the Minority expressed concerns over what they believed was an attempt to delay the passage of the anti-gay bill.

Asawase Member of Parliament, Muntaka Mubarak said on the floor of the House, Wednesday June 8 that until the bill is passed, even if the government introduces a bill that seeks to bring water to the people of his constituents, the NDC MPs will oppose it.

Muntaka explained that since the anti-gay bill was introduced, several other bills have come to Parliament and passed by the House. He suspected a deliberate attempt not to approve the bill.

“So far, as this constitution is concerned when we introduce a bill in this house and it is before the committee that committee must not spend more than three months without coming to tell us reasons why it has to go beyond the three months.

“…Since this is a matter that the Chair of the Constitutional and Legal Affairs wants to use to delay that bill, that bill was in this house before several other bills, I can assure you that any other bill introduced in this house, we shall resist it. Even if it is to provide water in Asawase we will resist it.

“We will make sure that that bill, as long as it stays there no other bill passes through this house.”

The controversial bill divided opinion in the Ghanaian public discourse.

While some, particularly the religious and traditional groupings, supported the Bill and hopeful of its passing, others say it could incur the wrath of the international community against Ghana.

The bill is being promoted by Ningo Prampram lawmaker Samuel Nartey George and some of his colleague legislators.

By Laud Nartey|editors.3news.com|Ghana