A Deputy Minister-designate for the Office of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Alfred Tuah-Yeboah, has insisted that the death sentence be maintained on Ghana’s law books.
According to him, if possible some of the death sentences, especially those involving brutal murders be carried out in order to send a strong signal to perpetrators of such heinous crimes.
Amnesty International, Ghana, and others have called on President Nana Akufo-Addo, the Attorney General, and other stakeholders to immediately take steps to abolish the death penalty.
They believe capital punishment robs victims of the basic right to life and therefore must be expunged from Ghana’s laws.
However, the deputy ministerial nominee expressed his strong exposition to the call when he took his turn at the Appointments Committee of Parliament yesterday to be vetted.
“As to whether Ghana has agreed that the death penalty should be abolished, I cannot confirm. But I know there are various groups agitating that Ghana should abolish the death sentence.
“Speaking for myself, as a human rights activist, human rights lawyer, I hold the view that life is precious but that doesn’t mean you must take someone’s life.
“I’m a realist and a positivist. If you look at some of the murders that we have, especially when it comes to robbery with murder and the callous manner some of them carry out these actions, I think that we need to hold on for some time. Not at this stage,” he stated.
The nominee noted that Parliament and the various stakeholders could work out a solution by adopting the United States system and grading murders.
According to him, he subscribed to execution of the full sentences of some culprits and stressed, “If it is better to kill them they must be killed.”
“At times, it sends a signal to others that it doesn’t pay to kill. But so far as we have it now, people are sentenced to death and they are put in prison in Nsawam
“Some of them, under some circumstances, you may want to sympathize with them but there are others that I think if we’re to scrap death sentence, we may have more murders.
“So at the moment, I don’t subscribe to scrapping the death penalty. I know Amnesty International and human rights activists want it scrapped. “I hold a different view and I think at this stage we need to keep the laws in our statutes books and if need be carry out some of the death sentences,” he added.
