Parade of the Gaani festival, a Togolese tradition, in Sokodé, Togo, on January 14, 2023. MATTEO FRASCHINI KOFFI / AFP
The National Alliance for Change (ANC), one of the major political parties of the Togolese opposition, held a meeting in Lomé on Sunday February 12, a rally aimed at mobilizing its activists for the legislative and regional elections scheduled for this year.
No date has yet been announced for the holding of these elections, but they will be held this year, Togolese President Faure Gnassingbé said on December 31. Hundreds of ANC activists gathered in a small public square in Agoè-Nyivé, a town in the northern suburbs of the capital.
“We have to wake up”
“I am delighted, because the power in place has several times prevented us from coming together. We need to wake up because this country is badly governed“, Criticized Kuevi Ayélé, dressed in an orange t-shirt, the color of the party. Opposition rallies are rare, with opposition protests often banned since March 2020, after the country’s first case of Covid-19 was discovered.
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“I am satisfied, because it is a mobilization meeting for the next elections. Above all, we invited our activists to register on the electoral lists, during the census period“, declared to AFP Jean Pierre Fabre, president of the ANC and mayor of the Commune Golfe 4 (one of the 13 communes of Lomé). The main opposition parties had boycotted the legislative elections of December 2018, denouncing “irregularitiesin their preparation.
“The absolute evil of our country is impunity”
In addition, Jean Pierre Fabre strongly denounced the irregularities in the management of the fund intended to combat the coronavirus epidemic in Togo, noted in a report by the Court of Auditors. “The absolute evil of our country is impunity. The Togolese must fight to put an end to it, otherwise there will never be any change in Togo. There are many problems in this report from the Court of Auditors, because we are in a country where public procurement obeys rules“, he added.
In an 86-page document published on February 1, the Court of Auditors points out that out of 108 billion CFA francs (165 million euros) spent in 2020, “certain payments (…) related to non-priority expenditure or expenditure not having direct links with the implementation of response measures against Covid 19“.
He also points to monetary transfers, a measure intended to support the poorest, which have sometimes benefited people who were not eligible. Above all, the report notes an expenditure of 13 million euros spent for the purchase of 31,500 tonnes of rice by the Ministry of Commerce, without any trace of an order.
Last Thursday, the government dismissed allegations of wrongdoing, saying the spending is “compliant, regular and sincere“. For the executive, the Courthas not established a report of embezzlement or fraud“.
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