Two foreign nationals – a Nigerian and a Sierra Leonean, suspected to be homosexuals have been grabbed by the Akatsi police in the Volta Region to face the law.
Chief Superintendent Joseph Atsu Dzineku, the Akatsi South Municipal Police Commander, said the arrest of the pair followed police intelligence.
The two have been living together for over months. Pictures found on their mobile phones give them out as gays, but they have profusely denied being involved in homosexuality.
Police Chief Supt Dzineku said they would be put before court.
The arrest comes amid intense debate over an anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI+) bill, to criminalize LGBTQI+ activities – the advocacy and practice in Ghana, which is before parliament.
A former Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church, who was also a former Chairman of the National Peace Council, the Most Reverend Professor Emmanuel Asante, has counseled everybody to take out the emotions from the debate over whether to criminalize or not to criminalize (LGBTQI+) activities – advocacy and practice in the country.
The debate must be on why – the reasons, the consequences on the society, but not emotions.
Speaking at the induction of the newly-elected Methodist Bishop of Kumasi, the Right Reverend Stephen Kwaku Owusu, at the Adum Methodist Cathedral, in Kumasi, he called for the church to do more to help their members to have better understanding of what was going on and everything that they needed to know.
The church could not simply become indifferent to the challenging issues facing humanity. It should have a clear picture of what was happening and to take a firm position to aid the growth of the church.
He noted that some churches in America and Europe, based on purely subjective expediency, had accepted same-sex marriage and said the issue here was at the core of “our Christian, traditional and cultural values”.
Some Ghanaians are pushing for the passage of an anti-LGBTQI+ Bill by parliament, to criminalize LGBTQI+ activities in the West African country.
Some influential church leaders have threatened to get their members to vote down politicians who opposed the “Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill”. They have described same-sex marriage as evil and an abomination.
Members of Parliament (MPs) on the minority side, have signaled that they would be voting ‘yes’ for the anti LGBTQI+ Bill. They say they are going to insist on “clause by clause” voting.
Not everybody, however, agrees that the LGBTQI+ should be criminalized.
A group of top Ghanaian lawyers, respected scholars and professionals, have sent a memorandum to parliament to throw the bill out, terming it as backward and a violation of the fundamental human rights of the LGBTQI+ community.
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