Ghanaian PhD student loses scholarship in the US after attack on LGBTQ community

A Ghanaian student in the United States of America, Derrick Boadi Sakyi, has had his scholarship withdrawn following his involvement in hateful attacks against LGBT Ghanaians on Twitter.

A Ghanaian LGBT activist known as Papa Kojo exposed the attacks after receiving a threat from Sakyi.

Papa Kojo’s search showed that Sakyi had just started a PhD program in Biological Science at Ohio University in the United States under a scholarship.

According to reports, the scholarship was meant for LGBTQIA+ community members, applicants from the Global South, first-generation students, and people with disabilities.

Upon realising the contradiction, Kojo wrote to the university to inform them about the attack he received from Sakyi attaching other abusive and hateful posts he had made against the LGBT community in Ghana.

He wrote on Twitter: “One guy sent me death threats and I just checked his profile. He’s been inciting hate for years…in one of his most recent tweet, he confessed setting up gay men to be beaten and blackmailed and said if Ama allows him to correctively rape her, he’ll get her to the bar.

“I’ve found his name and details on LinkedIn and he moved to the US two weeks ago to start a PhD in Ohio. I want everyone to hold on tight because this TL is about to get bloody messy af in the coming days. 😂,”

After he wrote to the University, he received a reply indicating that Sakyi’s scholarship had been suspended pending a review.

“Stay away from progressive funding and scholarships if you’re a homophobe. Apply to Iran, Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan since you love oppression so bad,” Papa Kojo captioned his new post.