Buhari, others seek end to crisis in Togo

President Muhammadu Buhari and five other concerned West African leaders have called for an immediate roadmap to pave the way for negotiations between the Togolese government led by President Gnassingbe Eyadema and the opposition movement.

According to a statement on Thursday by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, the urgent demand by the leaders was made at a meeting to discuss the situation in Togo, which ended early on Thursday in Abidjan, 

Shehu said the Presidents of Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Benin Republic and Guinea Conakry attended the meeting with President Eyadema.

The statement read in part, “The West African leaders asked the parties in Togo to urgently negotiate, without ‘any preconditions’ and resolve the impasse in the interest of the well-being of the country and the region at large.

“Recall that President Eyadema had given himself a deadline of Friday to provide the basis and framework for negotiations in response to the increasing list of demands put together by the opposition movement seeking to oust him from power after 12 years as President.

“His late predecessor and father, Gnassingbé Eyadéma, was the President of Togo from 1967 until his death in 2005.”