Business activities on Eastern Frontier dips following clashes in Lome

Business activities between Ghana and Togo on the Eastern Frontier has dipped following clashes between opposition demonstrators and security personnel in Lome, capital of Togo on Wednesday.

Many shops in the Lome Central Market (Asigame) are also closed since Wednesday as their owners feared their personal safety and the looting of their wares.

Heavily armed anti-riot security personnel were seen at vantage points in the Togolese capital with armored patrols.

A number of security personnel and some demonstrators were said to have been injured during the clashes during which reports alleged that the security fired shots and tear gas and stormed a church at Amutieve to arrest some demonstrators escaping.

The demonstrators are contesting a new constitutional review that over turned that of 1992, which limited the tenure the President to two terms paving the way for the President to run for office as many terms as possible.

The opposition demonstrators considered the overturning of the 1992 review, as a ploy by the country’s ruling party to allow President Faure Gnassingbe Eyadema, now in his second term to stand again.

Events in Lome have slowed down business across the Eastern frontier with border personnel on either side having very little to do.

The normally busy Customs Baggage Hall in Aflao is virtually quiet.

Sources at the banks in Aflao said very few traders are patronising their services.

Currency dealers, transport operators and porters have also admitted that their businesses had declined since Wednesday.

Sources close to frontier personnel at the Ghana-Togo border told the Ghana News Agency that some Ghanaian traders who entered Lome before the Wednesday clashes had started returning lest they be held up in that country.**