The affair of the students put in prison during the last strike of the teachers does not finish to defray the chronicle. After the release of these students following various pressures, local authorities have set their sights on five people who have been in prison for several weeks. Everything seems like a settlement of account that one tries to dress up by fallacious motives.
Gbansar Nibtang, Douti Kadjlin, Dankour Limong-Yo, Dankour Kanatin and Kombaté Seydou have been languishing in prison for weeks, thanks to the will of the Prefect, the judge and the village chief of Yembour. Their crime, having asked the parents of the students, before the chief, to refuse to pay the costs of the damage without a written commitment of the prefect. But the case is not limited to this refusal.
Kombaté Seydou, presented as the brain of the leaders, delivers his testimony of the case: "Hello, I am Kombaté Barimbité Seydou. I left Lomé on March 27, 2017 in the afternoon. I arrived in the village on the 28th at 4am. I learned that there was a meeting of the parents to be held on the same day following the three students who had been arrested. I thought I would attend that meeting. Arrived at 9 am, the student's parents and the chef were present. The Chief took the floor, saying that the liberation of the pupils was promised by the Prefect and the judge against a sum of 1,600,000 CFA francs of the damage that the pupils had to pay. This amount was to be paid by 9 April. After this statement by the leader, there were four people who spoke before me. They said that if they had to pay the money, they had to have a written and signed memorandum from the prefect and the judge. In addition, they add that the pupils were not released by the prefect and the judge, but by a stranger who gave them each 10 thousand francs for their transport. It was at this moment that I asked for the floor and I told the chief to listen to his constituents, that is, to pass on the concerns of the parents of the pupils to the prefect and the judge. The chief takes up the floor and asks me if that is why I came. I said no, but that's my point of view. He accuses me of being the one who excites the parents of students to refuse to pay.
The meeting almost degenerated, and I left to avoid problems, because I arrived in the village, not for the problem of the pupils, but for a problem of ground that I had to regulate. The next day, Thursday, March 29, I went to the field with my uncle. On the spot, I noticed that the préfet had ordered the boundary of the land that belonged to us and that there were already two houses built on the site and inhabited. I thought of a lawyer to defend us because the land was not an administrative reserve.
On Monday, April 3, I had to return to Lomé in the early afternoon. A few hours before my departure, my cell phone was called and Douti Kandjome and his child had a summons from the préfet and they had to appear on Tuesday 4 April. I told them not to worry and that I will cancel my trip. I go home and I also get a call from the village chief who was trying to find out where I am. I replied that I was with my brother and his son who had just had a summons from the prefect in the field case. The chief then sends an emissary to me, who hands me a summons. The next day, we went to the préfet's summons. Arrived at the scene, the prefect very angry, let us know that the land is an administrative reserve. I then took the floor to tell him that no, that we are the owners of the land and that the State has never meant to have taken this field. I then asked him if he had any evidence that the state was the owner. He gets angry again and calls me a high priest, that I am before an authority. I replied that it is because of us that the authorities are there. That's where he calls the lieutenant of the gendarmerie of Bombouaka, telling me that it's over for me, that he's going to lock me up and that I will not
jail. When the lieutenant arrived, he asked me if it was me Seydou, I answered yes, and he told me that they had been looking for me since then and that I had fallen into their trap. He calls the agent to pick me up. He informs me that it is the agent who will personally take care of my report and asks me if I arrived at the meeting of the parents of the students. I said yes, and he asks me what I said at the meeting. I told him my position. He asks me if it is for the students' question that I returned to the village, and I answered that no, it is for the field affair that I am there. He then informs me that in their investigation, people have assembled the students from Lomé and I am the author. I ask him if I am the author of the teachers' strike or anything that happens in the country. When I arrived at the gendarmerie, they asked me again what made me come to the village. I reply that it is the case on the ground, and the gendarmes say no, that it is the students' affair. They insist and I reply that if it is the students' affair, then the old man and his child do the gendarmerie. Are they also involved in the student affair? Embarrassed, they ask me if this is my problem. The lieutenant asks the officers to release the old man and his child. After two hours, I am deferred to prison. "
This is how Mr. Kombaté Seydou found himself in prison, accused with others of having induced the parents of students to demand a written and signed commitment of the prefect and the judge before the reimbursement of the 1 600 000 F CFA. Their trial is scheduled for May 26th. Everything suggests that it is a settlement of accounts whose authors are none other than the village chief who did not appreciate the intervention of Kombate Seydou at the meeting and the prefect who considers that his authority was challenged By the latter.
As we can see, in Togo, a so-called democratic country, a prefect can afford to send a citizen to a prison on the basis of his moods. The five people have been detained at Dapaong Prison for more than a month already, without the assistance of their relatives who remained in Tandjouaré.
As a reminder, the savanna region had experienced mood swings of pupils during the strike of teachers and pupils of the village of Yembour had been apprehended following violations followed by deterioration of public goods. Thrown into prison, they were released weeks later as a result of pressure from NGOs. It is therefore the cost of this damage that the local authorities want the parents to pay.
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