Has Ghana minister ordered arrest of all gays?

Various reports are coming in that Ghana's Western Region Minister Paul Evans Aidoo has ordered the arrest of all gays in the area.

Allegedly, Aidoo has directed the Bureau of National Investigations and other agencies to find gay people and bring them before the courts, and has called for citizens to inform on those they believe to be gay.

According to Ghanaian news reports, he said:

“All efforts are being made to get rid of these people in the society.”

In Ghana, where 69 per cent of the population is Christian, homosexuality is still considered morally wrong.  Homophobic violence is common, and most gay people are closeted. 

Aidoo's witch hunt, if true, may have been inspired by comments from the general secretary of the Christian Council of Ghana Reverend Fred Deegbe, who said of homosexuality:

“This detestable and abominable act if passed into law in Ghana will bring the wrath of God upon the nation and the consequences will be unbearable.” 

According to Ghanaian news, Aidoo has said that anyone arrested on suspicion of homosexuality will be tried in court under a law banning “unnatural canal knowledge,” but Ernest Kofi Abotsie, a Lawyer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, says that no person can be arrested for breach of morality, explaining that the law is ambiguous and cannot necessarily be said to cover homosexuality.