Reinstate death penalty as punishment for ritual killers

The government has been urged by the People’s National Convention (PNC) to reinstate the death sentence as a sanction against those who carry out ritual killings.

This is meant to act as a deterrence in light of the rising number of reports of ritual killings in the nation.

The PNC said in a statement on Saturday that the rise in ritual killings called for practical government action to put an end to the crime. The statement was signed by Ms Janet Asana Nabla, the General Secretary, and copied to the Ghana News Agency.

“The PNC believes that the only way to stop these ritual murders is for the Government to revive the death penalty, which is still in our books, to save the lives of women and children and also deter others from following the same path,” it said.  

“Ritual murderers staying in condemned prison would only end up causing financial loss to the country.”  

The PNC stated that in order to stop other spiritualists from committing similar crimes, the spiritualist must be arrested alongside the criminal in all cases of ritual murder.

The party also demanded that all “traditional doctors” register with the government and have their activities watched so that they may be readily found and detained when necessary.

It requested that all spiritualist commercials on national television be prohibited by the National Media Commission.

It argued that it was necessary to outlaw entertainment programs, especially films, that featured scenarios meant to promote ritual killings.

The party also requested the National Communication Authority to take action in sanitizing the airwaves by cancelling the licenses of radio and television stations that allowed spiritualists to advertise on their radios.

In order to rid the nation of ritual slaughter, it urged the security personnel to be diligent in finding those responsible.