Agbéyomé Kodjo, the former Prime Minister of President Gnassingbé Eyadema, then opponent of the regime of his son, the current President Faure Gnassingbé, died in exile in Tema in Ghana on March 3. A few months apart from his support Monsignor Philippe Kpodzro who bowed out on January 9, 2024 in Sweden.
The former Prime Minister of President Gnassingbé Eyadema ran for the last presidential election against President Faure Eyadema. And, like most elections in Togo, he contested the re-election of the latter whom he accused of stealing his victory. Following this presidential election, Gabriel Messan Agbéyomé Kodjo was forced into exile to escape the manhunt.
Supported during the 2020 presidential campaign by Monsignor Philippe Kpodzro, opposition candidate Agbéyomé Kodjo was credited with 19.46% of the votes by the Constitutional Court. It proclaimed the victory of President Faure Gnassingbé. But the opponent never stopped contesting these results which he described as rigged and which thus placed him in second position. Consequently, he called on his compatriots to mobilize against this umpteenth rigging of which the regime has the secret by considering himself as the “Elected President”.
It was no more that, in a country ruled with an iron fist by Faure Gnassingbé, the opponent who proclaimed and demanded his victory was stripped of his parliamentary immunity in March 2020 before being arrested by the Service Central Criminal Research and Investigations in April. Kept for a few days, he will be placed under judicial supervision. But that did not stop him from continuing to demand that his victory be recognized. And it was to avoid a new arrest that Agbéyomé Kodjo finally took the path of exile. His party, the Patriotic Movement for Democracy and Development (MPDD) had decided to boycott the legislative and regional elections, scheduled for April 20, while awaiting the 2025 presidential election. This position aimed to first demand in particular the return of exiles political, the release of political and opinion detainees as well as national and inclusive bases
For his part, Ben Koffi Djagba, who claims to be the “Prime Minister” of the former opponent Agbéyomé Kodjo, invited all the daughters and sons of all of Togo to a collective start. An invitation that resonates as an echo of the message of the bishops of Togo. “… In the memory of the Togolese people, electoral periods generally rhyme with anxieties, concerns and questions due to suspicions, accusations of lack of transparency, irregularities, followed by violence with their consequences (…) We also plead in favor of the release of “political prisoners”. So we can read in their message entitled “The thirst for the new”.
By Daniel Yaoni
