The Togolese head of state Faure Gnassingbe has announced in his New Year message that the remains of President Sylvanus Olympio, Togo’s first president assassinated on 13 January 1963, will be repatriated to the country for reburial.
“The government, together with the family will arrange for the return to Togo of the remains of President Sylvanus Olympio, Togo’s first head of state, so that the nation will honor him duly,” said Faure Gnassingbe.
He also announced that “for the sake of healing and reconciliation”, 13 January 2010 which marks the assassination anniversary of Sylvanus Olympio (buried in Agoe, Benin) and the seizure of power by his father Gnassingbe Eyadema, is essentially “a day of meditation and prayer for peace, for reconciliation and for the success of the presidential election.”
The presidential elections will take place on February 28. And for Faure Gnassingbe, the Togolese people have to do better in terms of “freedom in the election, sincerity in the vote and the strengthening of our democracy without violence.”
“We need to move forward and never backward to build a stable, prosperous country. I am reassured that all of the Togolese political class, through the comprehensive political agreement, has really seized up this historic necessity,” the Togolese leader said.
Source African Press Agency
