Anti-gay bill: Mahama fires Bediatuo Asante over ‘disrespectful’ letter to Parliament

Former President John Dramani Mahama has described the letter that the Secretary to the President, Nana Bediatuo Asante, wrote to Parliament on the anti-gay bill as disrespectful to the House.

Mr Mahama said the executive arm of government has no authority to stop Parliament from carrying out its work by remitting the bill to the president for him to sign.

“Every lawyer will tell you that the president’s secretary does not have the power to write such a letter to Parliament.

“Parliament is a constitutional body, the constitution asks Parliament to send the bill to the president for assent, and so you cannot ask Parliament not to do its work, not to remit the bill to the president, You can say you are waiting for the Supreme Court, but you can’t write a letter to the clerk saying that the bill should not be sent to the president. The way and manner in which the letter was written, does not show respect to Parliament; it creates the impression that he has authority over Parliament, this is not good for governance,” the flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) said during a community engagement in Karachi Nchumuru in the Oti Region on Tuesday, March 19.

Parliament unanimously passed the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill 2024 (also known as the anti-LGBTQ+ bill) on Wednesday, February 28.

The bill, if assented to, prescribes between three and five years imprisonment to persons found guilty of willful promotion, funding, and advocating for LGBTQ+ activities prohibited under the act.

Also, persons who publicly identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, an ally or pansexual face between two months and three years of imprisonment.

The president later indicated his inability to the bill until after the Supreme Court had finished hearing the suit filed against it.

Later, in a letter dated March 18 addressed to Parliament and signed by the executive secretary to the President, Nana Bediatuo Asante, it was indicated that the Attorney-General wrote to the President stating, amongst other things, that “he has been duly served with both applications.”.

He, therefore, advised the President “not to take any step about the Bill until the matters raised by the suits are determined by the Supreme Court.”.

“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,” the statement added.