A religious philosopher and senior lecturer at the University of Ghana, Dr. Harry Lawson Kwaku Agbanu has argued forcefully against the move to abolish death penalty from the laws of Ghana.
According to Dr. Harry Agbanu, the death penalty provision must be retained to ensure sanity in society.
He contended that taking such a deterring punishment for high crimes like murder off the country’s laws will embolden many others to commit heinous crimes.
“Assuming what’s happening in our country today that young men in the pursuit of wealth go proposing to young ladies that they love them and when they agree, these people end up killing them and harvesting their parts just to make money and you’re telling me if such a person is caught, he should be sent to prison for life for whom to take care of?
The families of those people who have been denied their member, their breadwinner, they have to work now to pay tax to provide accommodation, to provide transportation, to provide bedding, to provide medical care for people like that then there will be every incentive for everybody to commit such crimes so that the state can care of you for life,” he argued.
While supporting the argument that felonious crimes like treason, piracy among others should not attract death penalty, Dr. Harry posited that perpetrators of murder are threat to the peace and tranquillity of society and thus, must be gotten rid off to restore sanity.
“If a human being who has signed up to observe the order, the rules of society, even to protect the lives of other people can on his own accord intentionally go out of his way to take the lives of others then that person ceased to be a normal human being. In fact, he has descended into the realm of a beast and society must get rid off those people in order to maintain sanity”.
“Once life is taken, and for that matter innocently, that individual does not deserve to live. He ceases to be a human being. He becomes a beast and he must lose his right to life,” he emphasised.
The lecturer said this while sharing his views on the bill currently before Parliament seeking to repeal the death penalty law.
Speaking on Point of View on Citi TV, lead advocate for the bill and MP for Madina, Francis Xavier Sosu argued that the law, if not removed, could give room for its abuse in the future.
He added that because of the fallibility of the justice system, it is possible people who are convicted of heinous crimes like murder may be innocent hence, retaining such a law will lead to their wrongful execution and will deprive them of any opportunity to prove their innocence.
But Dr. Harry Agbanu, who also spoke on the same platform, dismissed his concerns.
While admitting that the justice system is fallible and could wrongly sanction the execution of innocent people, he argued that chances of wrong conviction are slim and thus, should not warrant the abolition of the law.
