The Ghana Association of Persons with Albinism has criticized leader and founder of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Hassan Ayariga for making unsubstantiated remarks about albinos.

The presidential candidate of the APC is reported to have said on an Accra based radio station last month that children born with albinism are products of sexual intercourse between a man and a woman whilst she is menstruating.

According to him, “I did some survey and I was told anybody can give birth to an albino, but the process is this way:…If your wife is bleeding and in the process you are too hungry and you don’t want to wait until it’s over, and you decide to do the thing while she’s bleeding, in the process if she gets pregnant – you know some [women] can get pregnant even while bleeding – that is when that particular child [albino] is born.”

But the Association disagrees with this assertion.

Adam Abdul Wahab

National Advocacy Officer, Adam Abdul Wahab challenged Ayariga during an interview with Joy News to provide scientific evidence to back his comments.

He said the APC leader is dampening efforts it is making at ensuring that albinos are not discriminated against.

“We are very unhappy with what he said because the association has realized that there are a lot of misconceptions and notions about albinism and some of these notions have subjected persons with albinism to all sorts of human discrimination.

“So the association was using the scientific approach to explain to people the causes of albinism and if Hon Hassan Ayariga comes out at this time when we are at the peak of our education to misdirect the minds of the public, then it means that he is almost destroying the good work we are doing by providing education to the public,” he added.

He fears that “many people may now believe that what he said to be true and may not take our education serious.”

He described the comment as not only inaccurate but unscientific and incapable of surviving the test of common sense.