Togo crisis: 'ECOWAS intervention won't help' - Okudzeto

Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has said any intervention by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in the current political turmoil in Togo will not be helpful.

According to him, the turmoil has arisen because the opposition parties are up against Faure Gnassingbe, the President of Togo who happens to be the Chief of ECOWAS, and so interventions by ECOWAS will not be accepted by the opposition.

The French-speaking West African country is currently facing political crisis. The opposition political parties in that country are planning a political protest in the national capital, Lome.

A similar protest occurred at Atakpame-Sokode last Saturday with the protesters demanding term limits for Togolese presidents.

Speaking on this matter in an interview with Chief Jerry Forson, host of Ghana Yensom, on Accra 100.5FM, Mr Ablakwa, who is the Minority Spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, said: “President Akufo-Addo, in our view, should reach out diplomatically and offer himself as a possible mediator between the coalition of opposition parties and the president and his government.

“If you look at the situation, ordinarily, ECOWAS intervention will have been the best but the current Chair of ECOWAS is the Togolese president, Faure Gnassingbe, and that has complicated matters.

“And so if you ask for an ECOWAS intervention the opposition parties in Togo will not trust that intervention knowing that their president is the Chairman of ECOWAS. I believe Faure Gnassingbe’s peers, presidents in the sub region, can reach out to him.”