Former President Jerry John Rawlings says he did not hesitate in executing people for committing atrocious crimes when he was the leader of Ghana.
It is not an easy decision to sign a death warrant, for some it is but not all; I mean for some of the obvious ones which have to do with robbery and killing etc, I don’t hesitate with that, he told Kwaku Sakyi-Aidoo, host of the Sunday Night show on Asaase Radio.
At the same time, there is a time that I feel I’m going to execute a saint because of the possibility of regret they will be going through before they die. And I wish I could let them off but if I do that there will be perpetuation of more crimes, he emphasized.
“Take my friend Squadron Kojo Lee for instance, it was very difficult for me to allow his execution but it was done and I remember that a lot of people then thought I had helped him escape, to leave the country. People didn’t believe I had had him executed,” he narrated further.
There was also another gentleman who just kept killing people for rituals in his village. You can probably go and ask Victor Smith whether that man was a murderous character or not. He was also executed but he was the only one executed outside Accra because we had to execute him in his village, Mr Rawlings added.
-Adomonline
