Murderers must be executed, former President Jerry Rawlings has said.

“Our constitution empowers us and gives us the right to punish, to exact the same level of punishment and if we cannot do it, to serve as a lesson, to those who are taking others’ lives with ease, then please I’d like to use this occasion – I should have done this a long time ago – to invite Parliament to consider the need to look into our constitution as to whether we should not now empower the regional security councils to sign or to approve the taking of a life for a life,” Mr Rawlings said when the family of the late J B Danquah-Adu visited the former President at his residence in Accra on Wednesday, March 16.

“We all believe in the New Testament, but if some people are determined to conduct their lives along the Old Testament, then please let’s not give them the other cheek to slap,” the former military leader added.

The Abuakwa North MP was killed on February 9 at his Shiashie residence in Accra by a self-confessed 19-year-old boy, who is currently standing trial.

According to Mr Rawlings, if presidents of Ghana are refusing to sign execution orders of murderers on death row, parliament must relook at the law to decentralise that executive power to make it possible for regional security councils to execute those orders.