The letter that was written to the clerk of Parliament by Secretary to the President, Nana Bediatuo Asante asking the House not to remit the anti-gay bill to the office of the president was a proactive action taken under the law, a presidential staffer Dennis Miracles Aboagye, has said.
Parliament unanimously passed the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill 2024 (also known as the anti-LGBTQ+ bill) on Wednesday, February 28.
The bill, if assented to, prescribes between three and five years imprisonment to persons found guilty of willful promotion, funding, and advocating for LGBTQ+ activities prohibited under the act.
Also, persons who publicly identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, an ally or pansexual face between two months and three years of imprisonment.
The president later indicated his inability to assent to the bill until after the Supreme Court had finished hearing the suit filed against the bill.
Later, the Attorney -General in a letter dated March 18 addressed to Parliament and signed by the executive secretary to the President, Nana Bediatuo Asante, it was indicated that the Attorney-General wrote to the President stating, amongst other things, that “he has been duly served with both applications”.
He, therefore, advised the President “not to take any step in relation to the Bill until the matters raised by the suits are determined by the Supreme Court”.
The statement further requested that Parliament “cease and desist from transmitting the Bill to the President until the matters before the Supreme Court are resolved”.
“This Office is aware of two pending applications for an order of interlocutory injunction, both filed on 7th March 2024, in the Supreme Court in Dr. Amanda Odoi v. The Speaker of Parliament and The Attorney-General (J1/13/2023) and Richard Sky v. The Parliament of Ghana and The Attorney-General (11/9/2024), respectively, to restrain you and Parliament from transmitting the Bill to the President and, also, to restrain the President from signifying his assent to the Bill, pending the final determination of the matter,” the statement added.
The Secretary to the President received flak from some quarters including former President John Dramani Mahama for this letter to Parliament.
But speaking on the Key Points on TV3 on Saturday, March 23, Mircales Aboagye said “It was a single proactive action under the law taken by the secretary to the president.”
He further said that several people he has spoken to on the anti-gay bill have not read the entire document.
He says even several Members of Parliament (MPs) have not seen the final draft bill.
“80 percent of people I talked to haven’t read the bill… Some MPs may not have seen the final draft,” he said, adding that “nobody, whether in the NPP or the NDC accepts gayism but people have issues with the bill, that is why they have gone to court, they are not against the passage of the bill, they are against aspects of the bill.”