By
Elizabeth Ofosu, GNA
Accra, Oct. 15, GNA – Mr Robert Akoto Amoafo,
the Country Director of Amnesty International Ghana has disclosed that as at
the end of 2017, there were about 160 prisoners on death row.
He said they comprised 154 men and six women
who remained locked up under death sentence at Nsawam prison complex.
Mr Amoafo who recently mentioned this during
this year’s Day Against Death Penalty in Accra said although Ghana had not
carried out a single execution since 1993, the law allowing it, was still
preserved in Ghana’s statute books, and therefore, called for its total
removal.
Mr Akoto Amoafo mentioned overcrowding, poor
nutrition, inadequate healthcare and isolation of male inmates as some of the
sub-standard conditions in which inmates on death row lived in, that needed
immediate intervention.
“On the world day against the death
penalty 2018, Amnesty said prisoners on death row must be treated with humanely
and dignity and held in conditions that meet international human rights law and
standards.
“We believe that it is time for Ghana to
abolish the death penalty as many West African countries have done, he stated,
and appealed to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo to give prisoners on
death row a special Christmas gift by publicly committing to the abolition of
the death penalty for all crimes and rather convert all death sentences to
terms of imprisonment.
The organisation appealed to the President to
order the review of all cases of death row prisoners to identify potential
miscarriages of Justice and provide the necessary support to mandated agencies
to ensure that all death row prisoners were treated in accordance with the UN
standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners.
He called for the implementation of the Nelson
Mandela Rules that ensured that prisoners got adequate medical care, including
access to recreational and educational facilities.
The world day against death penalty is
celebrated on October 10 annually. The 2018 day focused on the substandard
conditions of prisoners on death row.
GNA