Akoto Ampaw can defend homosexuals but can’t fight witch camps – Dafeamekpor

Rockson-Nelson Etse Kwami Dafeamekpor a Ghanaian politician and the Member of Parliament representing the South Dayi constituency in the Volta Region has called out Ghanaian Lawyer Akoto Ampaw over the memo to fight the Anti LGBTQI+ bill in Parliament.

He said these persons who are ostracized from their societies and left in a so-called witch camp are left to suffer but cannot get people like Akoto Ampaw to fight for them.

Worrying is the fact that Akoto Ampaw has joined a group of experts to fight for a non-existing minority that cannot be seen on the streets.

“Akoto Ampaw doesn’t he know that we have witch camps in Ghana? Has he ever written on them before? There are towns in this country that when you are a witch they are taken to and are ostracized from society Akoto Ampaw is not fighting for the rights of those women, he’s fighting for the rights of people who you cannot find in the streets, faceless people. So if you speak of the minority group in this country, the Minority is supposed to be identifiable it is not any imaginary minority so we want to know who these minority groups are that he is fighting for their rights. They have brought a memo, we will listen to them and after listening to them, we will do our work and if they don’t like the outcome, they should go to Supreme Court,” he said on Accra-based OKAY FM.

Meanwhile, the Member of Parliament for Prampram believes that Homosexuality is not a human right and is championing the anti-homosexuality bill in parliament.

According to him, attacks won’t stop me from pushing for criminalizing LGBTQ+ because it’s against the fabric of the Ghanaian society and will not know tow to the wimps of a few who want to go against the natural order.

Background

They have described the bill as an impermissible invasion of the inviolability of human dignity.

The private members’ bill dubbed Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021 is being pushed for passage by some members of parliament. It is proposing heavy punishments for persons who engage in same-sex or its related activities including a 10-year jail term for offenders.

The promoters of the bill which was presented to parliament in June 2021 also want promoters of any sexuality that falls within the LGBTQI+ spectrum other than between a man and a woman to suffer consequences.

But following a public notice by the parliamentary service on behalf of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs requesting for written memoranda on the yet to be considered bill, the group of high profile Ghanaian lawyers, Communications, Media and governance experts say the bill is undemocratic.

The experts include Professor Kofi Gyimah-Boadi, Dr Rose Kutin-Mensah, Professor H. Kwasi Prempeh, Professor Audrey Gadzekpo, Professor Kwame KariKari, Mr Akoto Ampaw and Professor Raymond Atuguba.

In two separate memos to parliament seen by Mynewsgh.com, the groups say passage of the bill will amount to sacrificing the fundamental human rights of individuals who wish to enjoy their sexual rights on the basis of so-called Ghanaian cultural and religious values.

They argued that promoters of the bill have not provided data to support claims that allowing same-sex activities will erode the cultural values of Ghanaian society.

“The proposers of this far-reaching claim have not provided any data or evidence to suggest that there is such a threat, beyond a resort to some dogmatic religious tenets and so-called Ghanaian family values,” the memo said.

They stated further that per Article 18 of the Constitution of Ghana, the country is practising a secular democracy and “not a theocratic Christian or the Islamic Republic or an African traditional monarchy or chiefdom.”

They added that “our Constitution rightfully forbids the imposition of a religious dogma, whether Christian or Islamic or traditional on Ghanaians.”