1992 Constitution supersedes any customary law – Deputy Attorney-General

The 1992 Constitution remains supreme and supersedes any customary law in the country, Mr Alfred Tuah-Yeboah, the Deputy Attorney General (A-G) and Minister of Justice, has said.

“If the constitution meets tradition and custom, it overrides them,” he said, explaining that “as the supreme law of the land, the fundamental principle of the constitution stood as the ultimate authority upon which the society stands.”

The Deputy A-G stated this in an interview with the media in Sunyani, in the wake of the alleged marriage of a 12-year old girl to 63-year-old Gborbu Wulomo which happened at Nungua, Accra.

“If your tradition says you can marry someone who is below 18 years, and our constitutions say no and the constitution is supreme”, Mr Tuah-Yeboah said, adding anybody who breached the law would be prosecuted.

He explained that the law permitted and allowed only girls, 18 years and above to marry, though girls 16 years and above could consent for sex, saying it was illegal to have sex with girls below aged 16 years.

“Anybody who is not 18 years and above cannot not consent to marry or to be married”, he stated and warned that the law would not deal leniently with perpetrators of child marriage.

Source: GNA

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