Akufo-Addo buying time to avoid signing anti-gay bill – Ahmed Ibrahim
First Deputy Minority Whip, Ahmed Ibrahim, has asserted that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is employing various tactics to avoid assenting to the anti-LGBTQ+ Bill.
Parliament approved the bill on February 28, 2024, criminalizing LGBTQ+ activities, as well as their promotion, advocacy, and funding.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has since pledged to await the Supreme Court’s ruling on a legal challenge by Richard Sky before deciding on the contentious anti-LGBTQ+ Bill.
In an interview with Citi News, the Member of Parliament for Banda suggests that President Akufo-Addo is seeking ways to refrain from signing the bill into law.
He indicated that the president is mandated to refer the bill to the Council of State for advice if he fails to sign it within seven days.
“The president I know is buying time. He used every avenue and wanted us to delay the bill so that it doesn’t come to Jubilee House under his time for him to sign. That is why they wanted to put it down, bring other bills, we finish them, and they will bring others until Parliament said if we don’t finish this one, we will not do anything else. That is when they realized their hands were tied, and it was passed.”
“Now, by Article 106 of the 1992 Constitution, the president is mandated to refer the bill within seven days to the Council of State if he doesn’t want to sign it.”
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