Anti-LGBTQ bill: Akufo-Addo doesn’t want to sign

According to Bawku Central MP, Mahama Ayariga, President Akufo-Addo is not interested in signing the anti-LGBTQ bill into law. The Bawku Central NDC lawmaker accused the president of trying all means to dodge responsibility to sign the bill into law.

Mahama Ayariga is among the number of people who reacted to President Akufo-Addo’s letter directing Parliament to not send him a copy of the bill. The letter directed to the Clerk of Parliament said, “This Office is aware of two pending applications for an order of interlocutory injunction, both filed on 7th March 2024, in the Supreme Court in Dr. Amanda Odoi v. The Speaker of Parliament and The Attorney-General (J1/13/2023) and Richard Sky v. The Parliament of Ghana and The Attorney-General (11/9/2024), respectively, to restrain you and Parliament from transmitting the Bill to the President and, also, to restrain the President from signifying his assent to the Bill, pending the final determination of the matter.”

However, many people have condemned the letter saying it was needless and amounts to interference by the President. Members of Parliament, particularly those with the NDC have condemned it and said President Akufo-Addo is seeking excuses not to sign the anti-LGBTQ bill.

Speaking on Citi FM’s Eyewitness News, Mahama Ayariga “The suit in the Supreme Court is seeking to restrain him from assenting to the bill. What he has done is to write to parliament saying that parliament should not even attempt to transmit the bill. There is no interlocutory application before the Supreme Court seeking to restrain him from receiving a copy of the bill.

He added, “There is no such application…he should have received it. So, for him to say that I will not receive it and parliament should not attempt to transmit it because there is a suit in the Supreme Court is manifestly wrong.”

According to the experienced lawmaker, “It betrays a man who already does not want to assent to the bill and is just looking for excuses and is making up excuses and obstacles in the way of the bill. That is what it betrays.”

Meanwhile, former Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu has described the letter as a threat to the country’s democracy. Addressing journalists on March 19, 2024, the Tamale South MP did not hold back in his critique of the decision of Akufo-Addo.

He said, “I am unable to sleep because this is a monumental threat to Ghana’s democracy. A monumental threat to Parliament as an institution. By Article 93, we are clothed with legislative authority and legislative mandate.”