The Minority Caucus in Parliament has warned that it will not tolerate any further attempts to delay the approval of the bill on the promotion of proper human sexual rights and Ghanaian family values, commonly known as the anti-gay bill.
Last week, ahead of the third reading and potential passage of the bill, Deputy Majority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin filed a motion demanding a second consideration of the bill. His proposed amendment aimed to replace imprisonment with community service.
The House was therefore compelled to continue with the amendment of about thirteen of the clauses in the bill today [Wednesday, February 21].
Minority Chief Whip Governs Agbodza urged Afenyo-Markin to complete any necessary consultations regarding his proposed amendments before Wednesday. He warned that the Minority will not tolerate any actions perceived as delaying the process beyond that date.
“We should also be clear in our minds that we will not unduly always find a reason to postpone the progress of this bill to another day. Because, as we said the other day, everything that he [Afenyo-Markin] has raised in his proposal, he took about an hour here speaking about it, but he keeps giving reasons why we cannot deal with it. So we are giving him ample time to do the consultation because there will be no more filibustering after Wednesday.”
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Meanwhile, the Minority in Parliament, through its ranking on the Parliamentary Select Committee on Defence and Interior, has associated itself with the comments made by DCOP Gabriel Prince Waabu concerning the provision of security in the upcoming December general elections.
DCOP Waabu, during a panel discussion on JoyNews a few days ago, indicated that the Police Service had learned lessons on ensuring peaceful elections, which means it will exclude the military from this year’s elections.
According to him, “we are not going to involve the military as it were, and it is going to be only the police, fire service, prisons, and then immigration service [that will provide security during the elections]. It is our baby, it is the police baby, and we will invite our sister security services to assist in one way or the other.”
But the Ghana Police Service, in a statement, disassociated itself from the comments by DCOP Waabu’s and stressed entirely that the comments are his and do not represent the Service in any way or form.
The service said the statements made by DCOP Gabriel Prince Waabu concerning election security are unfounded and do not represent the position of the Ghana Police Service. We would therefore like to disassociate the Ghana Police Service completely from the statements and apologise to the Ghana Armed Forces. The conduct of the officer is being subjected to internal disciplinary processes of the Ghana Police Service”.
The statement further said, “we want to state that under the National Elections Security Taskforce Architecture, the Ghana Police Service works with all other security services, including the Ghana Armed Forces, to ensure peace, security, law and order, before, during and after elections. The approach to the 2024 General elections will be no different.”
Responding to the Police, James Agalga, the MP for Builsa North Constituency in the Upper East Region and the former Deputy Minister of Interior under the John Mahama Administration, said the police have got it wrong and they must desist from any attempt to intimidate the DCOP, Gabriel Prince Waabu.
He submitted that the police are primarily responsible for internal security when it comes to elections, and so shall it be. He said the military only comes in when the police is overstretched or overwhelmed, adding that, that must even be done at the “behest of the police”.
He found it shocking and regrettable for the police administration to dissociate itself from “a known and factual statement from a senior officer.
