The Member of Parliament for Madina, Francis Xavier-Sosu, says the refusal of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to assent to the Criminal Offences Amendment Bill 2023 is a deliberate attempt to frustrate the laws passed by Parliament.
President Akufo-Addo, in a letter to Parliament, declined to assent to the Criminal Offences Amendment Bill 2023, which seeks to criminalize attacks on alleged witches, and the Ghana Armed Forces Amendment Bill 2023, which also seeks to expunge the death penalty from the laws of the Ghana Armed Forces due to constitutional concerns.
Addressing the media, the proponent of the bills, Francis Xavier-Sosu, says the action by the President is untenable behaviour that could undermine the country’s democracy.
“You recall that the death penalty bills were 2. One was removing the death penalty on the criminal offense act, which he has assented to, so all those on the death roll, we are now working for them to be removed from the death roll and committed to life. And the bill that seeks to remove the death penalty from the Ghana Armed Forces, the president who is the Commander–in–Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces is refusing to sign the bill that is introducing one of the most important reforms in the armed forces law since 1962. So for me, it baffles me that the president is citing constitutional issues. So all this while where has the president been? Or have these constitutional issues not been with us? I believe that what the president is doing is a deliberate effort to frustrate the laws that have been passed by this parliament.”
The Armed Forces Amendment Bill has been subjected to preliminary consultations with significant stakeholders such as the Attorney-General, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), and the Ghana Armed Forces before it was referred to the Constitutional Legal and Parliamentary Affairs for further deliberations.
“When a bill is sent to the Committee, the committee grants interested parties permission to submit a memorandum if there is any issue with the bill. We never had any memorandum from the presidency. Indeed, we visited the presidency, and the president assured us that we should have a cross-party approach to passing this bill. So what changed after passing this law?”
He concluded by saying these actions by the president could negatively affect our democracy.
