‘Back off!’ – Dean of UPSA Graduate Studies tells diplomats supporting LGBTI groups

The Dean of Graduate Studies at the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), John Mensah Mawutor, has condemned foreign diplomats supporting Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Intersex Rights (LGBTQI) groups in the country.

Mr. Mawutor who was speaking on Morning Update on TV XYZ Monday morning stated that homosexuality was alien to the country’s numerous cultures and warned that diplomats whose countries support LGBTQI cannot impose it on Ghanaians.

His caution comes after the European Union (EU) in Ghana confirmed it participated in the opening of an office for the group, LGBT+ Rights Ghana, on January 31, 2021.

The EU said it also supported a fundraiser to officially introduce and promote the group’s office and community space in the country, notwithstanding the fact that it is a criminal activity in Ghana.

But Mawutor who chastised the EU for their acts said, “I have a serious issue with EU and the various diplomats in our country who are interfering with our dignity, our culture, and tradition as a people.”

“These are people who are flouting our laws with some impunity… for them, they are fighting a cause but you are on our land and support things that the country appalls,” he added, explaining that the activities of gays and lesbians will corrupt the country’s customs and traditions.

“Clear off and back off this issue,” Mawutor said. “They are extending their boundaries to areas that I don’t think they should go to. It is our country…It is against our beliefs and I’ll say they should back off.”

He said they have broken the country’s laws and the government must rise to protect the “dignity” of the country by preventing people from taking the laws into their own hands.

“I don’t hate these people, they are also human beings but they should know that what they are doing, they are breaking the laws,” he added.

A private legal practitioner Alexander Twum-Barimah who was a panel member on the programme said the government had a responsibility to protect the traditions of the country and clamp down on the activities of such lawbreakers, adding that the law is clear on such criminal acts.

Meanwhile, the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council (GPCC) has called on the government to summon the foreign diplomats supporting LGBTQI organization in Ghana.

The council has also called for the closure of the said office without delay, “Close down without delay the alleged LGBTQI office in Ghana and immediately arrest and prosecute the individuals or groups behind the alleged opening of this new office in Ghana for breach of the law and potential threat to peace,” the GPCC said in a press statement dated Monday, February 22, 2021, signed and issued by the President of GPCC, Rev. Prof. Paul Frimpong-Manso.

“The actions of the LGBTQI movement is also completely at variance with the laws of God as spelt out in the Holy Bible concerning God’s plan of creation and the sanctity of marriage between Man and Woman as ordained by God” it added.

The council, therefore, charged the government to officially state its position without any equivocation on the development.

It further stated that all foreign diplomats who allegedly participated in the opening of the LGBTQI offices must be summoned to explain their violation of the sovereignty of Ghana.