Western Regional Minister-designate Paul Evans Aidoo told Parliament’s Appointments Committee on Friday that comments he made during his previous term as a regional minister were misconstrued to suggest that he advocated a gay witch-hunt. He explained that in July 2011, an NGO issued a report claiming that it had documented 8,000 homosexual residents of the Western Region, leading to widespread anger there. Two days later, he explained, the Muslim community held demonstrations in protest of the report. He recalled that in order to prevent people from taking the law into their own hands by attacking suspected gays and lesbians, he urged them to instead report homosexuals to the authorities. His goal, he insisted, was not to promote the victimization of gay people but rather to encourage residents of his region to act in accordance with the law. Nonetheless, he maintained, if a referendum were held in his region, many residents would “vote against the practice of homosexuality.”