The National Communications Officer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Sammy Gyamfi, has said that NPP MPs were forced into accepting the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021 (anti-LGBTQ+ bill) by the people of Assin North.
According to him, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Members of Parliament (MPs) were dragging the passage of the bill until the Assin North election.
Speaking at the NDC’s victory rally to celebrate the Assin North by-election victory, on Sunday, July 9, 2023, Gyamfi said that decision of Assin North voters to vote against the government was what forced the MPs to change their minds.
“After the people of Assin North taught them (the NPP MPs) a small lesson during the by-election they have changed their minds. During the second reading of the anti-LGBTQ+ bill in Parliament, they all raised their hands in support after they were initially hesitating.
“It was only one person who spoke against the bill, her name is Ursula Owusu,” he said in the Twi dialect.
He added that if the government has truly learnt a lesson from the people of Assin North, it should withdraw the suits it has sent people to file in court against the bill.
Meanwhile, the MP for Ningo Prampram, Sam Nartey George, has said that only one of the three New Patriotic Party (NPP) MPs, who were initially supporting the Anti-LGBTQ+ bill, stayed loyal to the drafting of the bill.
Speaking in an interview on Neat FM on Thursday, July 6, 2023, Sam George said that the NPP MP who stayed loyal to the course was the MP for Assin South and Deputy Minister for Education, Reverend John Ntim Fordjour.
According to him, the other NPP MPs who were initially sponsoring the bill failed to attend meetings to draft the bill and even missed the final presentation of the bill to the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, because of the pressures they were under.
The MP made these remarks while reacting to a statement by Andy Kwame Appiah-Kubi, the MP for Asante Akim, who was part of the NPP MPs initially sponsoring the anti-LGBTQI bill, that he was not present for the presentation of the bill because he was busy.
“He had sixteen meetings to put together the bill with the coalition. Ask him (Andy Appiah) Kubi whether he attended any of these meetings. Every time, they have an excuse to give, even on the day of the presentation they want to give an excuse.
“If today all of them are now on board, they are welcome. But I would continue to celebrate Honourable Ntim Fordjour because on that day (the day of the presentation of the bill) we knew the pressure that he came under but he said he was a priest and he believed it was the right thing to do,” Sam George said.
