The Deputy Minister-Designate for the Office of the Attorney General and Justice, Alfred Tuah-Yeboah was the first to appear before the Appointments Committee on Tuesday, June 15.
In his opinion time is not ripe for abolishing the death penalty because of the rife callous crimes.
The death penalty has continued to be handed down, mostly in murder cases but also following treason convictions for alleged coup-plotting, and as many as 180 prisoners may remain under sentence of death.
No executions are known to have been carried out in Ghana since 1993, but the government has not indicated any support for abolition of the death penalty. In 1996, when the governmental Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and non-governmental human rights groups pressed for its abolition, government officials defended its use as a deterrent
He pledged to assist the substantive Minister to uphold the tenets of rule of law through their daily work to ensure that laws are clear, predictable and accessible and that cases are publicly adjudicated in courts independent of the executive arm of government.
He was indifferent to the separation of the Attorney General’s Office from the Ministry of Justice and said he did not have a position yet on concerns for the two to be distinct since he has not taken part in any such conversation but encouraged such conversations to go on.
The nominee said Ghana’s Legal Aid Scheme tasked with providing legal assistance to the poor and indigent, as well as other persons in the prosecution and defence of their rights does not function as well as it should.
To effectively execute its mandate, he suggested, it must be given the resources needed to implement its mandate.
The nominee holds MSc in Defence and International Politics from the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College, Accra.
He completed his Professional Law Course at the Ghana School of Law in 2002 after obtaining a degree in Accounting and Law from the University of Ghana, Legon in 2000 and a Diploma in Business Management from ICS, Glasgow, Scotland in 2000.
