The Member of Parliament (MP) for Zebilla constituency in the Upper East Region, Cletus Apul Avoka, has voiced his disagreement with the calls to abolish the death penalty in Ghana's legal system.

Discussions among legislators have arisen following the report from the Constitutional, Legal, and Parliamentary Affairs Committee on the Criminal Offences Amendment Act, which proposes replacing the death penalty with life imprisonment.

Speaking to the media, Avoka restated his position, expressing concerns that eliminating the death penalty could have negative consequences for the country's justice system.

He argued that without the deterrent of the law, there could be an increase in vigilante justice, where suspects are killed by civilians without proper judicial proceedings.

“Where is the evidence that when the death penalty is taken out of our books, people will not commit murder? In fact, we are having fewer heinous crimes because of the existence of the death penalty. Already, people do not have confidence in the judicial system, and if you now go around telling people that if you kill somebody, you will not die, then you are inviting Ghanaians to take the law into their hands and do instant justice.”

“Abolishing the death penalty has the tendency to increase mob justice.”

Mr. Avoka refuted the notion that countries that have abolished the death penalty experience lower crime rates. He argued that each jurisdiction is unique and what may work elsewhere may not necessarily be effective in Ghana's context.

He emphasized the need to consider Ghana's specific circumstances when evaluating the potential impact of abolishing the death penalty.

“There is very little logical argument to the conversation that the peaceful countries in the world do not have the death penalty in their books. The jurisdiction is not the same and has different issues and so advancing that argument is a non-starter.

“There is no empirical proof that in Ghana if we abolish the death penalty, people will not commit heinous crimes. There is nothing to support it.”

While the death penalty was originally inherited from the colonial administration as a punishment for serious offenses, including murder, attempted murder, genocide, piracy, and smuggling of gold or diamonds, Ghana has not carried out any executions since 1993.

In contrast to this, Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams, the presiding archbishop and general overseer of the Action Chapel International ministry, supports the movement to abolish the death penalty.