LGBTQI: UK’s invitation to MPs requested by Committee Chair – Suhuyini claims

The Member of Parliament for Tamale North, Alhassan Sayibu Suhuyini, says the invitation by the UK Parliament to Ghana’s Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs was at the behest of the Chairman of the Ghanaian Parliamentary Committee.

Speaking to Naa Dedei Tettey on Morning Starr on Monday, Mr. Suhuyini challenged the Chairman of the Committee, Kwame Anyimadu-Antwi, to refute the claim.

“This invitation was actually as a result of a request made by Chairman of the Committee to the UK Parliament and other Parliaments, especially in Europe. I just wonder why the Chairman of the Committee, who claims he does not have funds, he does not have money to fast track the process of considering the bill, will want to spend the funds that he thinks he does not have for his Committee members to tour Europe on this matter.

“Let it be clear on our minds that this is about Ghanaian values, it is about Africa values, so really, what are we going to learn that will impact this bill from a community that is battling with this issue?” the Tamale North MP quizzed.

He, however, added that “But in some cases, they are not even battling it, let me be straightforward. They have not embraced it, and we are saying that we don’t want to embrace it”.

Background

The UK Parliament is expected to meet members of the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee of Ghana’s Parliament today, Monday, June 13, over the anti-gay bill.

Chairman of the Committee, Kwame Anyimadu-Antwi, disclosed this in an interview with TV3 on Saturday, June 11.

“One is the death penalty in Ghana. You will realise that when you are convicted of murder, you have to be killed by hanging, but no president, to the best of my knowledge, had actually appended his signature for the person to be killed. Even though they are convicted to prison, and then they go to condemn prison, and it remains there. Now, the argument, and this is actually initiated by one of the Members of Parliament, Honourable Francis Sosu, MP for Madina, that we must actually scrap this from our statutory books.

“It is one of the subjects that we have to deal with. Amongst other things, we have to meet Ghana Mission, and then we also discuss this LGBTQ. Particularly, I am interested in it because we have a law that emanated from our colonial masters in our static books, which says that unnatural carnal knowledge is an offence, but they happen to pass the LGBTQ, they are not in favour of it. We are seeking to pass a bill that will go against the. How did they get there? I will be interested to know.

“The invitation came to the Speaker, and the Speaker forwarded it to the Committee. Four members of the Committee, including myself and the ranking member, will be attending this important meeting. We take off on Sunday; we were supposed to have gone today, but because of flight arrangement, we will go on Sunday, so we walk into the meeting Monday morning, and by Wednesday, we are done,” he said.