Togo Opposition Leader Held After Police Raid

Lome, Apr 21 (AFP) Togolese security forces on Tuesday raided the home of opposition leader Agbeyome Kodjo over accusations of threatening state security, one of his lawyers said.

"Mr Kodjo was forcibly arrested today. The security forces broke down his gate and front door before arresting him and taking away," Claver N'dry told AFP.

A gendarmerie official, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said Kodjo was arrested for failing to comply with a police summons for a third time.

The 65-year-old former prime minister was runner-up in elections on February 22 that returned the incumbent, Faure Gnassingbe, as president of the poor West African country.

Kodjo's lawyers said he was unable to comply with any of the summonses -- on April 1 and 9 as well as on Monday -- for health reasons.

Lome prosecutors stripped Kodjo of parliamentary immunity in mid-March after he declared himself Togo's legitimate president and called on the armed forces to rise up against the Gnassingbe government.

The public prosecutor has accused Kodjo, head of the Patriotic Movement for Democracy and Development, of public order offences and threatening state security.

Kodjo challenged official results of the election that gave him nearly 20 percent of the vote against just over 70 percent for Gnassingbe.

The constitutional court rejected his challenge and validated the results. Gnassingbe took office in 2005 in the former French colony upon the death of his father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, who had ruled the country with an iron fist for 38 years. (AFP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)