The fact that people can preconceive murder and carry it out is enough reason for them not to have the right to live too, Professor Ransford Van Gyampo, of the University of Ghana has said.
He has described as hypocrites, those who are applauding the expunction of the death penalty from Ghana’s statutes in the name of human rights.
According to the lecturer, “the right to life is inalienable, if you premeditated, decide to come and take my life, I’m being honest, I don’t care being against the tide, I don’t care the hypocrisy of so-called human rights lawyers, Sosu is my lawyer, I disagree with him. I say that if you think that I do not have the right to live for whatever reason, and you decide to come and take my life, you have no right living too.”
“The so-called human rights advocates are hypocrites themselves because they themselves, they do not want their right to life taken away from them. So, my point is that, if somebody sits down and premeditate that I’m going to take human life, he does not also have the right to live,” he was emphatic.
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Prof. Gyampo continued that, “the fact that we have not had the courage to implement that law is not enough basis to say that we’ve not had the courage to implement it so let us expunge it. The apprehension of death in itself is punishing enough so for me I respectfully disagree with the removal of this law.”
He went on to cite some provisions in the constitution that merely exist to shape human life just as the death penalty was.
“Sometimes there are laws that are there and expected to just shape our actions and conduct. They may not be implemented. If you like go ask, those who prepared the law of ‘causing financial loss to the state’, it was not meant to be implemented because it was supposed to be checking because if you really want to implement that law, then there can be never be the usage of discretion. Some of the time you have to act using initiative and discretion to be able to protect a certain public good. But if you’re scared of that law, then it will retard initiative so it was supposed to be there to be checking. So that law should have remained in our status even if you don’t want to implement it,” he specified.
Prof. Gyampo was speaking on the Key Points on TV3 Saturday, July 29, 2023, with Alfred Ocansey.
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