A human rights group in Ghana has accused a government minister of promoting hatred by urging people to report suspected homosexuals to the authorities.
The group, the Centre for Popular Education and Human Rights said Paul Evans Aidoo's comments could endanger the underground gay community in Ghana, where homosexual acts are illegal.
The BBC reports that Mr Aidoo, who is minister for the Western Region, told a Ghana radio station that he wanted to rid society of gay people and take them to court.
It said the minister was reacting to reports that 8,000 gay people in the Western Region had registered with Aids charities.
"I don't believe it; nobody believes it," he told the radio station, urging people - "landlords and tenants" - to come forward if they suspected someone was gay.
The suspects would be taken to court to see if they could be charged, Mr Aidoo said.
Mac-Darling Cobbinah, the head of the Centre for Popular Education and Human Rights, said the threat was empty.
He told the BBC, "There's no way you can be arresting people on the basis of perception. It is promoting hatred - and it's creating a divided society where gay people will be antagonised or attacked or blackmailed."
