Member of Parliament for the Madina constituency, Francis-Xavier Sosu, has expressed his excitement over the removal of the death penalty by legislators in Ghana’s parliament.

According to him, he is grateful that the other members of parliament deemed it a great idea to push for the removal of the death penalty. Being the legislator who solely pushed for the passage of the Act, Mr Sosu applauded his colleague MPs for doing what is necessary.

“I think that there have been very sound arguments in support of abolishing the death penalty, and the arguments are researched-based. The death penalty is too final. Parliament did the needful and made Ghana proud in the Comity of Nations by abolishing the death penalty. I think this is a good thing for Ghana.”
Francis Xavier Sosu

On the other hand, a religious lecturer at the University of Ghana, Dr Harry Agbanu, expressed his reservations about the passage of the Criminal Offences Amendment Act 2022. He indicated that the removal of the death penalty will encourage citizens to take the law into their hands.

“The floodgate has been opened for violent, criminal activities by some members of society, and that is unfortunate. I’m praying that the opportunities won’t be created for people to take the law into their own hands by engaging in mob action. There has not been any sound argument in favour of the abolishment of the death penalty.”
Dr Harry Agbanu

Parliament passes criminal offences bill

Parliament passed the Criminal Offences (Amendment) Bill 2022, technically expunging death penalty from Ghana’s laws. By the Bill, the President will be empowered to commute death penalty into life imprisonment.

The Bill was passed by Parliament on Tuesday, July 25. The death penalty has been in Ghana’s Criminal Offences Code but has not been signed by any President in the Fourth Republic.

Most human rights advocates had called for an expunction of that penalty. By the passage of the Bill, no offender will suffer punishment by death.

Speaking on this, Deputy Majority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin, who is also a lawyer, was happy with the “feat”, asking the country to celebrate such gesture.

“We have had a death penalty in our statute books for well over 50 years. It has been a concern. I’m happy to say that we have by this amendment of the parent act been able to repeal that provision that deals with the death penalty. So simply put, the death penalty is no more a punishment in our statutes. What we are saying is that God gives us life and under no circumstances should a person’s life be taken merely because of committing such an offence. That is not to say that those who take it upon themselves to take the lives of others are being encouraged to do so.”
Alexander Afenyo-Markin

Although the death penalty was inherited from the colonial administration as a punishment for murder, attempted murder, genocide, piracy, and smuggling of gold or diamonds, successive presidents of Ghana have not signed a death warrant for the execution of offenders since 1993.