Witchcraft, wildlife bills violate constitution – Prez. Akufo-Addo

• Posted on December 6, 2023December 6, 2023
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

President Nana Akufo-Addo has told Parliament that due to constitutional violations, he is unable to assent the Criminal Offences (Amendment No.2) Bill, which criminalises accusations of witchcraft and witch-finder practices, and the Wildlife Resources Management Bill.

According to him, his review of the two bills indicates that the legislations were passed by Parliament without going through the “established constitutional and legislative processes.”

“The concerns raised are significant and have profound implications for the constitutional integrity of these legislative actions,” the President said in two separate letters to Parliament.

The letters, read out on the House floor by Speaker Alban S.K. Bagbin, pointed out that the Witchcraft and Wildlife Bills did not follow the constitutional process.

Castigation

Speaker Bagbin chastised President Akufo-Addo on Monday, November 27, 2023, for failing to send to Parliament a communication to confirm receipt or “to say they have a problem” with the [Witchcraft] bill.

“Because there must be records for people to follow as to what happened in respect of this process. So please that is why I am drawing your attention to it before it is taken off the Order Paper,” he explained.

This was after he directed the Table Office to strike out an item on Order Paper which called on the House to rescind its decision taken on July 27, 2023 to approve and pass into law the bill on the Criminal Offences Amendment Bill 2022 following the third reading of the bill.

During the proceedings, the Minority Leader, Dr. Ato Forson, accused President Akufo-Addo of breaching the constitution by allegedly failing to assent to the bills within the time limit.

“So clearly, Mr. Speaker, there is a constitutional breach and this House must take steps to deal with the constitutional breach that we have seen in the criminal amendment bill and the witchcraft accusation bill,” he stated.

Response

The Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu rebutted the accusation, asserting that “it is not on account of the President deliberately refusing to assent to nothing like that.”

He explained that President Akufo-Addo did not assent to the bill because he did not seek to indict Parliament for doing a poor job on the Witchcraft Bill after discovering “major issues” with it which are fundamental to the legislation.

Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said after the passage of the bill, while going through it as usual, they discovered major issues in the bill that required revision.

“That is from Parliament itself and then we had some conversations with the Speaker and we also informed the President that there are fundamental issues with the bill which has been passed by Parliament,” he added.

He indicated that this prompted the President to arrive at a decision to have some conversations with the Speaker on the matter.

The meeting between the President and the Speaker eventually came off during which the President raised specific constitutional concerns regarding these bills related to Article 108 of the Constitution.

Presidency

President Akufo-Addo said in the letters to Parliament that during his conversation with the Speaker, he particularly pointed to the nature of these bills which were introduced into Parliament as private members’ bills, rather than being presented by or on his behalf.

“I appreciated the opportunity to engage with you in a meaningful dialogue about these critical legislative matters and valued your insights on the subjects,” the President stated.

“As I indicated, the context of these bills have my support but we need to ensure that they are enacted in accordance with established constitutional and legislative processes.

“Thus after thorough consideration and in the light of the constitutional issues as pointed out in our meeting, I am unable to assent to these bills,” he stressed.

“Any legislation we pass must be in complete alignment with the provisions of our constitution. I intend to have these bills re-introduced in Parliament on my behalf in due course,” the President said.

By Ernest Kofi Adu, Parliament House