File photo: LGBTQI

One of the promoters of the new anti-homosexuality bill, the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council is urging persons who have concerns about the draft bill to provide suggestions on how to make it better.

General Secretary Rev. Emmanuel Barrigah says the Council expects resistance from a section of the populace but believes the bill will succeed.

“We are humble enough to admit that we are not perfect, there may be gaps, we are not surprised at the level of attacks coming,” he told JoyNews on Monday.

The new anti-homosexuality bill among others prescribes jail term of up to 10 years for persons who engage in or promote homosexual activities.

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According to Rev Barrigah, “people have started talking about the sanctions, threats to free speech, and all that. So those are areas which we think people can write memoranda and present papers to look at and address them so that eventually we can have this bill passed into law.

“We know that going forward the battle is going to become even tougher, but we are determined,” he added.

Member of Parliament for Old Tafo, Vincent Asafuah, has also indicated that although he supports the bill, there are more pressing issues that have to be first dealt with.

He believes the current challenges the country is trying to solve make the timing for such legislation a little problematic.

He insisted that “on a scale of preference on our table, I do not see this bill to be very present for us to deal with.

“I’ve also indicated that I believe in the philosophy I believe in the principles in this bill. But the timing is also very important to me, timing because we are in an era, whereby there are pressing issues that we need to deal with as a nation.”