Private legal practitioner, Yaw Barima, has said that the president is not permitted to act in ways that prejudice the lawsuits filed at the Supreme Court over the anti-gay bill.
He explained that the president is expected to govern within the rule of law and the law says that whenever there is an action in court, anybody with the knowledge of the action is not supposed to conduct himself in ways that prejudice the matter.
Yaw Barima said these on the mid-day news on 3FM with Beatrice Adu on Tuesday, March 19 while speaking in relation to the letter that the Secretary to President, Nana Bediatuo Asante wrote to Parliament on the anti-gay.
He said “The president is by law enjoined to rule this country in accordance with the law. The law is that whenever there is an action in court anybody with knowledge of that action is not supposed to conduct or engage in conduct or activities that will prejudice the fair hearing of that case in court. In this particular instance, parliament has passed a bill and it is awaiting presidential assent to become law.
“Before the president can give his assent, two people have taken the matter to court seeking to stop that bill from being, in one case, sent to the president, and seeking also to stop the president from giving assent to that bill.
“The Attorney-General who is the Chief Legal advisor to the president has written to the president acknowledging that he has received those two actions and advising the president not to do anything pending the determination of those two cases in court. So by law, the president is not supposed to do anything that should prejudice those actions in court.”
He added “I am not too sure about the propriety of that letter from the president’s executive secretary to the clerk of Parliament. The clerk will be performing his constitutional duty, and so to the extent that the Executive Secretary is seeking to direct the clerk not to send the bill, I am not too sure that I agree with that process.”
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 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.
Read the full letter below:
