A Togolese journalist critical of power and “missing” since Sunday, according to his relatives, said in a message posted on Facebook, Wednesday, March 8, to be “relatively well” and to be “more or less safe from danger”.
“This is a sign of life to reassure anyone who has been worried since Sunday. I’m doing relatively well despite this terrible ordeal, “wrote Ferdinand Ayité, without further details. “I’m more or less safe for now. I will come back for details later, ”continues the publication director of L’Alternative, a biweekly critical of power. Earlier in the evening, his lawyer, Elom Kpadé, had told AFP that his client was “well”, without giving any details.
Mr. Ayité had been “missing” since Sunday morning, a few hours before a summons to the gendarmerie, according to his relatives. In the early afternoon, Isidore Kouwonou, the editor-in-chief of L’Alternative, told AFP that Mr. Ayité “had received a summons from the Central Service for Criminal Research and Investigations [Scric] to appear Sunday at 3 p.m.,” but remained “untraceable after leaving the house for errands around 9 a.m. “His wife tried to reach him, to no avail. We contacted the gendarmerie, who have not heard from him,” Kouwonou added.
“You can fear for your life”
Ferdinand Ayité, who was due to appear this Wednesday in the Lomé court, has been indicted since December 2021 for “contempt of authority” and “spreading false comments on social networks” following complaints from two ministers for comments held in a program broadcast on YouTube.
The announcement of his disappearance aroused concern, particularly within the opposition. “Given the brutal habits of the Togolese regime, one can fear for one’s life… Which would be a new step, unacceptable, in the violence suffered by the Togolese”, said in a press release sent to AFP the former secretary French state Kofi Yamgnane, also Togolese and president of the Sursaut Togo movement.
At the end of December 2021, Mr. Ayité and another journalist had been imprisoned in the civil prison of Lomé for their comments on YouTube, before being released a week later. Amnesty International then denounced the “arbitrary detention” of the two journalists, denouncing “an attack on freedom of expression”. In February 2021, the newspaper L’Alternative was suspended for four months in a case involving the current minister of urban planning, Koffi Tsolenyanu.
