The Member of Parliament 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.
He insisted that Andy Appiah and all the other sponsors of the bill were aware of the day it was being presented but he failed to show up.
The Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021, popularly known as the anti-LGBTQ+ bill, was sponsored by Sam George (NDC MP), Emmanuel Kwasi Bedzrah (NDC MP), Della Adjoa Sowah (NDC MP), Rev Ntim Fordjour (NPP MP), Alhassan Sayibu Suhuyini (NDC MP), Rita Naa Odoley Ntso (NDC MP) and Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor (NDC MP).
The names of the two other NPP MPs who were initially supporting the bill did not appear on the final report of the bill by the Constitutional, Legal, and Parliamentary Affairs Committee of the House.
Parliament on Wednesday, July 5, 2023, adopted a motion to approve the bill.
