Anti-witchcraft: Akufo-Addo has no reason not to sign

Private legal practitioner Martin Kpebu has expressed his bewilderment with the reason given by the president for not signing the anti-witchcraft bill into law. The president reasoned that the bill would impose charges on the Consolidated Fund while adding that the bill should have been state-sponsored and not by a private member.

“During over conversation, I raised specific constitutional concerns regarding these bills relating to Article 108 of the constitution, particularly the nature of these bills which were introduced to Parliament as Private Members Bills rather than being presented by the Executive on my behalf,” parts of the President’s letter to Parliament stated.

Again, the president assured that the bills would be reintroduced before the House but this time on behalf of the executive.

“Any legislation we pass must be in complete alignment with the provisions of our constitution. I intend to have these bills reintroduced in Parliament on my behalf in due course. I thank you for your cooperation on this matter.”

However, Martin Kpebu thinks the excuses by the president are not strong enough. He contended that the president had already signed one of the bills, the death penalty one which means he can also sign this one without issues.

“I will say that it is not right for the president to come too late in the day to say that he is not able to assent because it imposes charges on the consolidated fund. So the question is, at the time he was signing the first death penalty, you knew the death penalty laws were two.

“There is the one that has to do with Act 29, which he has already signed, and there is the Armed Forces Law and the witchcraft law that he has not signed. That law was passed in July, so it baffles me that the president is coming now, after several months, to say no, he doesn’t think that’s the right thing to do,” Mr Kepbu told Citi’s Eyewitness News.

“We did a presentation with Amnesty International. I made the presentation to the President to amend Act 29, and the president nodded in admiration. The then Attorney-General, Gloria Akuffo, and Ambrose Dery were there. They didn’t do it, and Sosu did, and the president was happy that at least the Private Members Bill had resulted, so he signed the first one joyously. So I think that this thing he is doing is sending our democracy back,” Martin Kpebu explained.

Meanwhile, Majority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has expressed his misgiving at the manner in which Speaker Alban Bagbin responded to President Akufo-Addo’s decision not to sign the anti-witchcraft bill into law. Alban Bagbin was not enthused by the president’s idea to not sign the anti-witchcraft bill and as usual, did not hold back in his response. The Speaker said the president was ill-advised by the Attorney General and he got it tragically wrong.

But Mensah-Bonsu feels Bagbin should be modest with his words. He said, “If the Speaker disagrees with him, it is legitimate, and he could have ended at that”. The Suame MP argued that Bagbin should have explained his understanding of the law instead of using “the rather visceral language” against the President.

He said the Speaker’s comments after reading the president’s letter were “most unfortunate”.