*A Child Is A Person Below 18, Constitution Is Clear - Speaker Demands Tougher Laws Against Defilement*

The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, has called for a revision of Ghana's existing legislation to make punishment for sexual offences against children more punitive, stressing that the Constitution is clear that a child is a person below the age of eighteen years.

Contributing to a statement made by Dr Zanetor Agyemang Rawlings Minister for Environment, Science and Technology on the floor of Parliament during deliberations on protecting children from defilement and sexual abuse, the Speaker said the confusion that arose in the past between sex at age sixteen and marriage at age eighteen created a lot of problems.

"A child is a person below the age of eighteen years. That is a child. A person below the age of eighteen years," he said.

"The Constitution is very clear that is a child and they should be protected. So please let's take this seriously."

He said he will follow up on the directive for collaboration with the Ministry, noting that because the current meeting is a budget meeting, he will not put pressure on those called to collaborate.

"But next year I will put pressure on you so that we can revise and update or refine our existing legislation to take care of these things, to make it very punitive," he said.

"Apart from just the register, to ensure that the culprits go through the due process and they are sanctioned and sometimes with serious consequences so that we can stop this."

The Speaker also used the occasion to stress the importance of values, integrity and honesty in national development.

He said no society has developed by doing what is wrong, adding that all developed countries treasure values.

"There is no society that has developed to the best of my knowledge by doing what is wrong. All the countries that you visit and see they have developed, they have values that they treasure. Integrity and honesty very high," he said.

He cited Dubai as an example where a person can leave an item behind and return later to find it intact.

He also recounted a testimony about a gentleman who misplaced his phone at the beach at La and went back the next day to find it had been kept waiting for him.

He said a Member of Parliament from East Africa who experienced it was so happy and commended Ghana for that level of integrity.

"This is how we can augment some of our decency to develop our nation," the Speaker said.

Report filed by PKB