General News of Tuesday, 21 February 2023

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

Attorney-General ‘obstructing’ passage of anti-LGBTQI bill – Sam George alleges

Sam Nartey George Sam Nartey George

The Member of Parliament for Ningo Prampram, Sam Nartey George, has accused the Minister for Justice and Attorney-General, Godfred Dame, of frustrating the processes for the passage of the Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2021 (Anti-LGBTQI bill).

According to the MP, the Attorney-General failed to submit a memo when the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee, which is considering the bill, called on stakeholders to do so.

Speaking in a 3FM interview monitored by GhanaWeb, Sam George added that after submitting his memo on the anti-LGBTQ+ bill late, Godfred Dame now keeps postponing his meeting with the committee to look into issues he raised in his memo.

“The Attorney-General is filibustering the bill. The Attorney-General is acting as a clog in the wheel of Parliament. And he must take notice that we are taking very key notice of it and we will flex our muscles as parliamentarians very soon with him.

“Because he has been in this country when we called for memos, he didn’t bring a memo. His staff has been with the committee from day one. After we have finished work on the 176 memos, we had and the committee has done the clause-by-clause consideration now the Attorney-General says he has a memo to bring.

“He has brought his memo, come and let us sit down, today he is busy, tomorrow he is this. Yesterday, there was supposed to be a meeting, the committee gave a time and he said it was not convenient for him,” he said.

Sam Geroge also said that Godfred Dame has gone to make promises on the bill to western countries even though he is not a Member of Parliament.

He added that all the issues the minister raised in his memo to the committee have been resolved and it will not in any way bring changes to the committee’s report.

The MP urged Godfred Dame to bring his own bill to the floor of parliament if he thinks the anti-LGBT bill is flawed and stop wasting the time of the committee.

The MP for Ningo Prampram and eight other MPs sponsored the anti-LGBTQI bill.

People of the same sex who engage in sexual activity could spend up to 10 years in jail if the bill is passed.

Watch the interview below:



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