Togo denies knowledge of plot to kill Rawlings

The Togolese Authorities have come out strongly to deny accusations about the alleged existence of a secret camp in Togo for the training of killers, and conspirators for the exclusive purpose of the assassination of a former Ghanaian Head of State, Flt.-Lt. Jerry Rawlings.

Togo’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Koffi Panou, was reacting to allegations contained in a press interview granted to the Ghanaian newspaper The Statesman by the special aid of former Ghanaian head of state in Accra.

In the press interview, Victor Smith, the special aid said that ex-President Rawlings had received information about a plot by assassins who are allegedly receiving training in a secret camp inside Togolese territory to kill him.

According to the special aid “the conspirators who had set up a secret camp in neighbouring Togo to receive training in order to assassinate former President Rawlings are also sympathisers of the present government of Ghana.

The media reports alleged that the information of the plot came to the office of the former President on Wednesday from an intelligence source in Canada. The special aide alleged that former President Rawlings has the names of the alleged assassins but was not prepared to reveal them to the press.

In a sharp reaction to the allegations, Togo’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Panou, said that Togo has no knowledge of any secret camp set up inside its territory ostensibly to offer training for the sole mission of killing the former Ghanaian head of state.

Minister Panou expressed shock at the allegations. He told the BBC in London that Togo, as a founding member of ECOWAS strictly adheres to the protocols of the Treaty of Non-Aggression of 1978, which forbids member states from offering their territories for acts of subversion against member states of the community.

For this reason Panou explained that Togo has not in the past nor does it intend to in the future, offer its territory for the training of subversionists, terrorists or assassins from neighbouring ECOWAS member states.

He emphasised that Togo has no quarrel with the former Ghanaian head of state, and does not stand to benefit or appropriate any political gains from the assassination of ex- President Rawlings or any other individual from any ECOWAS member state.

Minister Panou recalled that when former President Rawlings was in power his government was accused of several attempts to destabilise the Togo government but Togo did not retaliate.

He said that now that he is out of power, there is no apparent need for Togo to seek to eliminate him adding that, “Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings is not a threat to Togo in any way.”

Panou therefore appealed to Rawlings to endeavour to furnish the Togolese government with all intelligence information in his possession concerning the existence of the alleged secret camp in Togo. He said this will enable the country’s competent security agencies to carry out “thorough investigations into the allegations.”

Ghana’s Ambassador to Togo, Kwabena Mensa-Bonsu, said there is no iota of truth in the allegations because there is no evidence that such an imagined training camp really exists in Togo.