Togo opposition leader Agbeyomé Kodjo still being held by the gendarmerie

25 Avril 2020

Lomé, Togo, April 25 (Infosplusgabon) - Former Togolese Prime Minister Gabriel Messan Agbéyomé Kodjo is still in the hands of investigators of the Central Research and Criminal Investigation Service (SCRIC) of the national gendarmerie for "need for an investigation", following his arrest on Wednesday.

He has not yet been presented to the prosecutor and has spent his fourth night on the premises of the SCRIC.

Candidate of the Patriotic Movement for Democracy and Development (MPDD), who came second in the 22 February presidential election with 19.45%, Agbéyomé Kodjo refuses to accept the official results and contests the victory of Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé who was declared elected with 70.78% of the votes in the polls.

Summoned twice to the gendarmerie without presenting himself but was represented by his lawyers, he received a final and last invitation to the SCRIC.

Seeing that he is determined not to honour ths summons, dozens of gendarmes surrounded his house and his neighbourhood, shortly after the beginning of the curfew which runs from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. because of COVID-19.

On Wednesday, the gate of his house was smashed and he was arrested by force, worthy of a Hollywood film.

Agbéyomé Kodjo is accused of proclaiming himself president against the advice of the Independent National Electoral Commission and the Constitutional Court, appointing a prime minister, addressing the Armed Forces and Defence forces by usurping the title of the head of state, and creating an official government website.

Through these acts, the public prosecutor's office accuses him of "aggravated disturbance of public order; dissemination of false news, defamatory denunciations and violation of the internal security of the State".

Thus, as soon as his parliamentary immunity was lifted, an investigation was opened where he is currently being heard for the opening of a judicial investigation.

Since then, an overwhelming number of reactions have been voiced demanding his release.

Agbéyomé Kodjo, a protégé of Archbishop Philippe Fanoko Kpodzro, dean and Archbishop Emeritus of Togo, who has supported him since his candidacy, is raising his voice and calling for his release.

The bishops condemn the "brutality" of his arrest and call for his release.

The political parties are demanding his release and have denounced this arrest, along with other people who are his collaborators.

Civil society organizations are also calling for the same thing, deploring the military method used to arrest a former Prime Minister and President of the National Assembly.

But the Public Prosecutor of the Republic, who is surprised by these reactions, denounces "the contempt of the judicial authority and its auxiliaries" displayed by Agbéyomé Kodjo and the Minister of Civil Service, Gilbert Bawara speaks of "systematic flouting" of the law.

Elections in Togo are always a source of conflict. Gilchrist Olympio of the Union of Forces for Change (UFC) and Jean-Pierre Fabre of the National Alliance for Change (ANC) have experienced almost similar cases, except for arrests.

The Agbéyomé Kodjo case is a delicate one. The authorities don't want to give him gifts, as he was one of their close allies under Eyadéma Gnassingbé, father of the current Faure Gnassingbé.

He is accused of treason since it is thanks to the party in power that he built up a stature of a statesman, several times minister (Youth and Sports, Interior), head of major state companies (Sonacom, Port Autonome de Lomé) before becoming President of the National Assembly and Prime Minister.

For many observers, "they are wolves who consume each other".

FIN/INFOSPLUSGABON/ASD/GABON2020

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