Opinions of Thursday, 24 April 2014

Columnist: Imbattune Isaac/Accra

More Are Getting Assaulted over Gay Issues

Just when the Ghanaian society seemed asleep in 2010, it was awoken to the sad event that happened when a former student of University of Ghana, Legon was nearly lynched by his colleagues for standing for the rights of gays. The gentleman who’s affectionately called Paddai was rescued by the Legon Police Division whose intervention saved him his life.

When asked to comment on the incident, Paddai had this to say, “I don’t care if I die for standing up for our own. We need them and they need us together we form a unit. Our society cannot continue to neglect them.” He gave this word to me outside the conference hall where the program took place away from the eyes and watch of his assailants.

The same incident unfolded this year when the Daily Guide on January 4, 2014 reported an incident that took place in Nima, a suburb of Accra where a group of Muslim youth from Nima in Accra has mounted a search for a young man believed to be a homosexual, after allegedly lynching his gay partner.

A source told DAILY GUIDE that Salisu was a known homosexual in the area, and all advice by Islamic clerics and family, for him to change his sexual orientation had fallen on deaf ears. However, the real trouble began when another suspected homosexual by name Yaw Nkrumah came to live in the area, and the pair started flaunting their romantic relationship in the Muslim-dominated area.

“The source revealed that matters got to a head last week when two men, whose identities DAILY GUIDE could not establish at the time of going to press, confronted Yaw Nkrumah about his ‘ignominious’ relationship with Salisu, and the former called their bluff, resulting in a scuffle. The two men went to mobilize about 30 men who stormed the house of Yaw Nkrumah, where they stripped him naked and lynched him.”

My concern is that, we need to do something real quick before matters get to worse.