Member of Parliament for Ablekuma West Constituency, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, went hard on Murtala Muhammed for calling her an LGBTQ+ practitioner.
During a heated debate on the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021, also known as the anti-LGBTQ+ bill, a brawl broke out inside the floor of Ghana’s Parliament. The event took place during the plenary session, when the committee responsible for constitutional, legal, and parliamentary affairs submitted the bill for consideration.
While representatives from both parties were debating, the deputy speaker stopped the discussion to ask that Murtala Mohammed, the member of parliament for Tamale Central, retract a statement he made against Ursula Owusu, the representative for Ablekuma West.
Murtala Mohammed didn’t speak directly into the microphone, but his comment nonetheless drew the attention of the speaker, which prompted the deputy speaker to have him retract it. “I heard you, Honourable Murtala; please withdraw your statement. The deputy speaker asked for the statement to be withdrawn immediately.
With obvious annoyance, Ursula Owusu spoke, saying, “Mr. Speaker, I sat here and repeatedly heard Murtala refer to me as an LGBTQ+ practitioner, to the hearing of everyone in this House. I sat here and repeatedly heard him. Shouting on top of his voice, and every single one of you is behaving as if you didn’t hear it, and in response to that, I will say he’s mad.
“It’s only a madman who will refer to his colleague in this house as a practitioner of LGBTQ+. When you haven’t caught me having sexual intercourse with your wife, daughter, or mother, you sit there and refer to me in those terms.”
But Murtala Mohammed argued that he hadn’t made any formal declaration on record and didn’t see any reason to back down from a simple comment. Murtala Mohammed spoke up again, saying that Ursula Owusu should apologise to him as well for calling him mad.
