Education is key in preventing politicians from using people with albinism for rituals during elections, Chairman of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) Professor Edmund Delle has said, adding that government must protect albinos.

Persons with albinism in Ghana have said their lives are in danger as the nation approaches the elections as they are used for rituals by the politicians.

The albinos say politicians usually use them for various rituals during elections to assure victory.

Commenting on the issue on the Executive Breakfast Show on Class91.3fm Tuesday May 31, Professor Delle described the practice as “sad”.

“It is very sad and it is also happening in Ghana. I get the reports from them, it is happening in Ghana and I cannot understand why at this age in the 21st century we should believe in things like this. It is sad but I will say that it is a matter of education,” he told host Prince Minkah.

Professor Delle bemoaned the level of discrimination against persons with albinism and said it was only education that could reverse the trend.

“It is a question of education. We have to talk and government must come out and protect albinos. The point is that they are discriminated against even when they go to get a place to stay. They say they don’t want to see them. If you want to marry somebody and they send you to any house they say: ‘The person [albino] is bringing us bad luck so get rid of them’, so there is really discrimination against them,” he observed.

“…Go to the villages, you will find sores on them and that is cancer and nobody is prepared to support them. So I had to talk to some benevolent people abroad who supported and we treated them and they are ok. Because they go round begging…they are looked down on as people who are ostracised from normal society and so they suffer discrimination. So, it is for us to come round and help and talk about it and say it is not fair. …They are not criminals, they are not people who are going to transfer the disease to you; it is genetic, and in some areas it carries from family to family so you cannot blame the person for what the person has.”