Kwame Anyimadu-Antwi, the chairman of Parliament’s constitutional, legal and parliamentary affairs has said it is absurd for the Minority side to suggest that he is deliberately delaying the passage of the anti-LGBTQ+ bill.
He said that suggestion also smacks of hypocrisy on the side of the Minority because they have fully participated in all the processes at the committee level.
Speaking with Beatrice Adu on the Big Bulletin on Asaase Radio Wednesday (8 June), Anyimadu-Antwi said, “This allegation is unfounded and I’ll treat it with the contempt it deserves. Yesterday, Hon. Bedzrah complained that we are delaying the bill. So I came in to set the record straight this morning because when he made that comment I wasn’t in the chamber.”
He said the committee has had about 186 memoranda on the bill, adding “so we had to group them and do the public hearing. We finished with all that in the last meeting.”
However, the Minority in Parliament has threatened to prevent the House from passing any bill until the anti-LGBTQ+ bill is passed.
The minority accused their colleagues from the other side of deliberately delaying the consideration process with the constitution, legal and parliamentary affairs committee yet to present a report to the plenary for consideration.
The Minority chief whip, Muntaka Mubarak said, “… we have to serve notice to our colleagues. Since this is the method that the chair of the constitutional and legal committee wants to use to delay that bill; that bill was in this House before so many other bills.
“I can assure you that any other bill that you introduce in this House we shall resist it…we’ll make sure that as long as that bill stays there no other bill will pass through this House. If you try to do that we shall oppose it because we see that it’s deliberate. You are deliberately delaying the bill.”
Agenda
But reacting to this, Anyimadu-Antwi said, “I suspect that somebody is trying to set an agenda against the chairman of the committee and I didn’t want to tolerate that, that is why I wanted to set the record straight…when somebody says the chairman of the committee is delaying the processes clearly the person doesn’t know his parliamentary procedure.”
He said, “Why should he accuse the Majority when the committee is made up of equal numbers from both sides [9-9]. Why? I don’t understand this. Is Hon. Muntaka going to organise the meeting of the constitutional, legal and parliamentary affairs committee?”
“He is a leader and I respect him for that but I am the chairman of the committee … I have even done more on this bill and that’s not the only bill that we are working on … and I will not be intimidated by these threats… it is absurd when they say that they don’t know what is happening to this bill. It is hypocrisy,” Anyimadu-Antwi added.
“If my people will learn their parliamentary rules, there will be sanity in the House,” he said.
The anti-LGBTQ+ bill was initiated by some six MPs, led by the opposition MP Sam George. The new law seeks to criminalise lesbianism and sex between men in Ghana.
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