Olympio's Party Replaces Jean Pierre Fabre

Gilchrist Olympio

TOGO'S LARGEST opposition party, Union of Forces for Change (UFC) led by Gilchrist Olympio, has elected a new leader for the party's group in parliament.

The new leader, Kokou Aholou, replaces Jean Pierre Fabre.

Consequently, Speaker of Togo's parliament has in a separate letter demanded Mr Fabre to handover a vehicle allocated to the office of the opposition UFC parliamentary leader.

A communiqué released from the party's headquarters in Lome and signed by the leader, Gilchrist Olympio, announced that Kokou Aholou had been elected as leader of the opposition UFC party in parliament, with Alexander Akakpo as his deputy.

According to the communiqué, Jean Pierre Fabre, former secretary general and presidential candidate of the party, has been excluded from the UFC party by a special unanimous motion adopted at an extraordinary congress on the 12th August 2010 in Lome, together with four other leading members of the party on grounds of “indiscipline”.

Among other members excluded from the party by the extraordinary congress were former 2nd vice president Patrick Lawson, Madam Isabelle Ameganvi, Eric Dupuy and Madam Mana Sokpoli.

With the exception of Eric Dupuy, the three are UFC Members of Parliament.

The National Bureau of the party has accordingly instructed all UFC members of parliament “to ratify on their entry into the National House of Assembly their confirmed choices in conformity with the standing orders of the House”.

The party bureau also invited all UFC members of parliament “to scrupulously respect the discipline of the party”.

The UFC party has 27 members out of Togo's 81-member parliament. According to the standing orders, four members of the House can form a parliamentary group.

Togo's largest opposition party has of late been ridden with an internal strife which has threatened to break the party apart.

The UFC internal party crisis began when Gilchrist Olympio took a “historic decision” on 26th May 2010 to enter into a power-sharing national government with the ruling RPT party led by President Faure Gnassingbe.

But a faction led by Presidential candidate and former secretary General of the UFC party, Jean Pierre Fabre, disagreed and revolted against the decision.

Jean Pierre Fabre claimed that he was the real winner of the March 4 2010 presidential elections held in Togo and continued to hold weekly Saturday street demonstrations to reclaim his alleged “stolen verdict”.

UFC party leader Gilchrist Olympio had withdrawn his support for the weekly street protest marches, describing them as “puerile”.

Olympio last Tuesday took over the party headquarters in Lome where he gave a press conference to claim that “the political power-sharing agreement the UFC signed with the governing party has scored significant gains”, adding “we are right on course”.

The party leader also announced that in the next few days, the UFC party's nominees would be appointed to ambassadorial posts and administrative positions in the country's parastatals, the public commercial banks as well as district governing executives.

For the 27 members of parliament, the choice as to whether to express support for the party leader's decision for a power-sharing government with the ruling RPT party or pitch camp with the break-away faction of Jean Pierre Fabre remains a looming dilemma.

From Ebow Godwin, Lome