Lome, 23 April, 2020 / 6:07 am (ACI Africa).
Bishops of the Episcopal Conference of Togo (CET) have, in a collective statement, lamented the “brutality and violence” on the part of government security agencies in the arrest of the opposition leader, Agbéyomé Kodjo and demanded he be set free “immediately.”
“The Episcopal Conference of Togo has learnt with dismay news of the arrest at his residence of Mr. Kodjo Agbeyome, on Tuesday, April 21, in circumstances of brutality and violence perpetrated by the Defense and Security Forces, who forcefully broke into his home by destroying the gate,” the Bishops stated in their collectively signed letter seen by ACI Africa.
They added, “We invite the judicial authorities to release Mr. Gabriel Kodjo Agbeyome immediately.”
In the letter, the Bishops went on to condemn the recurrence of violence, which “our authorities demonstrate in the management of a situation which is above all, political.”
Togolese security forces on Tuesday raided the home of opposition leader Kodjo over accusations of threatening state security, one of his lawyers has been quoted as saying.