Government breaks silence on same-sex marriage

Government has rejected claims that President Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo has approved same-sex marriages in Ghana.

According to a statement from the presidency, President Akufo-Addo will not legalise such relationship in Ghana.

“Indeed, the President remains focused on delivering on his mandate and improving the quality of lives of the Ghanaian people. It will therefore not be under his (Akufo-Addo’s) Presidency that same-sex marriage will be legalised in Ghana,” the statement signed by the Director of Communications at the Presidency, Eugene Arhin added.

The statement was a response to some claims allegedly made by the General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketiah who reportedly told NDC members in Kumasi during the party’s Unity Walk at the weekend that, “Nana Addo says men will marry men, and women will marry women.”

But the statement from the presidency urged Ghanaians to disregard the claim since it was a “falsehood” peddled by the NDC general secretary.

“We will rather appeal to Ghanaians to, once again, ignore the falsehoods of the NDC, and urge Mr Asiedu Nketiah to concentrate his energies on uniting his divided and discredited party,” the statement added.

United Kingdom (UK) Prime Minister, Theresa May, had earlier promised to help Commonwealth nations amend anti-gay laws she described as “outdated.”

She also urged Commonwealth nations to legalise homosexuality since to her “nobody should face discrimination or persecution because of who they are or who they love”.

Ever since, many renewed pressure on President Akufo-Addo to reject such policies and publicly declare his stands on the matter because he had earlier made some controversial remark on the issue.

Recently, Members of the Parliamentary Christian Fellowship strongly condemned what they described as moves to force Ghana to legalise Homosexuality saying “it is unacceptable to pressurise the government of Ghana to accept it as a human rights”.

In a statement signed by its President, Emmanuel Kwasi Bedzrah, the Christian MPs strongly kicked against consideration of the idea.