An old video of Minority Leader Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin, when he was then Deputy Majority Leader, has come back to bite him hard.
In the viral resurfaced video, in February 2024, the Deputy Majority Leader argued against the custodial punishment in the anti LGBTQ Bill.
According to Afenyo-Markin, jailing people who are homosexual would even make them worse off.
Speaking on the floor of parliament during the consideration of the Human Sexual Rights and Family Bill (anti-gay bill) in February 2024 argued, “To jail a person for his sexuality or her sexuality would not be the solution in maintaining our Ghanaian family values and ensuring proper human sexual rights, Mr Speaker, in the least, such individuals who get into our jails become worse off.
“Mr Speaker, as a law student in my final year at Makola, upon visiting Nsawam with my colleagues, it became clear that inmates were being sodomized. It became clear that people were rather getting deeper into that habit and that behavioural aspect of our culture that we dislike,” he argued.
Afenyo-Markin urged Parliament not to go on with the consideration of the bill, adding, “I dare say, Mr Speaker, that will be retrogressing should we insist as a House on a third reading with these incarceration provisions in the bill.”
Meanwhile, in recent times, the now Minority Leader and Member of Parliament for Effutu, although there is video evidence of his comments, has denied posting a social media post criticising Ghana’s Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, 2025, commonly known as the anti-LGBTQ bill.
According to Afenyo-Markin, the public must disregard the post claiming that his account was compromised.
In the claimed compromised post, which has now been deleted, Afenyo-Markin stated that laws should not criminalise individuals based on their sexual orientation or personal relationships.
The post read, “A law that imprisons people for their sexual orientation or who they choose to love does not protect society. It simply selects a group of human beings and makes their existence a crime. That is a line no Parliament in the civilised world should cross”.
However, after the post was removed, Afenyo-Markin stated, “Kindly disregard this post. Account was compromised”.
Nonetheless, some netizens have commented on the Minority leaders’ post saying, “Talk your shit with full chest.
Whoever 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9, etc consenting adults decide to do with themselves is not a national problem as long as it harms no one”.
“Wait, both your X and Facebook got hacked at the same time?”, a netizen added.
One X user added, “Heyyy, for God’s sake, it’s a lie. I commented on this post, I personally replied, and I have a screenshot I read on your page that’s a big disgrace to you. I’ve signed out of NPP”.
“Account was NOT compromised. If it was you’d be on panic mode and start securing your account fast. This was the link to your Twitter post https://x.com/AfenyoMarkin/status/2061784462103314856?s=20. An attached screenshot I took, we are not fools in this country; let’s be civilised”, a netizen added.
Meanwhile, Alban Bagbin, the Speaker of Parliament, has revealed he has summoned the leadership of both the Majority and Minority caucuses over the passage of the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, commonly known as the anti-LGBTQ+ bill.
According to Speaker Bagbin, the anti-LGBTQ+ bill is critical, adding that there must be a consensus because it is not about Parliament.
Speaking to the media in a video shared on social media, Speaker Bagbin stated, “I have asked the leaders to meet me in my office. So, they will be here for us to go through it. This is such a critical bill that we believe there must be consensus because it is not about Parliament”.
“The UN Charter, the African people’s rights and what all we have to go through all. Then we have also our development partners who had a lot of contributions to make. We had the United Nations coming in with proposals, some new rules and everything,” he stated.
“We as Ghanaians also have to dig deeper into our cultures, our customs, our values before we came up with what was passed on Friday,” he added.
“And in fact, when it was passed on Friday, it was even a surprise to me because I knew that they were going to start a consideration of the bill. And that was the instructions I left before I went to attend to other activities,” he expressed.
“It was Friday, and members wanted to go home early to their constituencies when we were going to sit today, so I knew they wouldn’t have completed it. But all of a sudden, I read about this passage, and later I saw on TV all the things that happened,” Bagbin stated.
Watch the video below:
#Throwback: "Jailing people for their sexuality won't be a solution in maintaining family values" – Afenyo-Markin, February 19, 2024#JoyNews #Ghana #JoyFM pic.twitter.com/xNPSZs9xO9
— JoyNews (@JoyNewsOnTV) June 2, 2026
