In a dramatic development that caused uproar across the nation, Agbéyomé Kodjo, Togo’s main opposition leader was recently arrested for declaring himself President.
We gathered that the opposition chief who was a former Prime Minister was apprehended at his home and taken to the gendarmerie’s Central Research and Criminal Investigation Service.
Claver N’dry, one of his lawyers confirmed to newsmen that his house was besieged before the operatives forcibly broke into the house.
Authorities accused the opposition leader of having refused obey two previous summons. However, his lawyers justified the absence of their client citing health problems.
In the words of the prosecutor, the opposition leader is guilty in particular of “… aggravated disturbances of public order and of undermining the internal security of the state.”
Recall that in mid-March, Kodjo’s parliamentary immunity was lifted at the request of the Lomé public prosecutor’s office, which accused him of proclaiming himself president of the Republic, even though the electoral commission had declared Faure Gnassingbé the winner of the February presidential election.
It would be recalled that Agbeyome came second in February’s presidential election even though he also won his seat as a parliamentarian.
Reacting to the development, the Togolese bishops’ conference advocated a political solution and calls for the release of the former prime minister, but not without condemning, “the brutality and violence” that occasioned his arrest.
