Arrest of the Agba Family: A Conspiracy ‌Against the State⁣ or a Witch Hunt?

Aïssat Agba no longer ⁢knows what to answer to the surprising question from⁤ her three children: “When is daddy coming home?” Cyrille, the husband of this Togolese woman who lives in the ​Paris region,⁣ has been languishing since July ​25 in a cell 6,500 km away,‍ in Togo.

The manager of a security company in Val-d’Oise, Cyrille Agba ‍is accused, with two members of his family, of “conspiracy against the internal security of the State ⁢and the financing of terrorism” and faces up to 20 years ‌in prison. His wife denies‍ the allegations, stating that her husband’s security company ‍in France would not have been approved if he had links to terrorists.

The Agba Family’s Ordeal

The Agba family’s ordeal began at dawn⁢ on July 25. Having arrived a few days⁢ earlier without his family in ‍Lomé, the capital, Cyrille Agba was woken up by about fifteen armed men in ⁢civilian clothes. Without ever informing him of ⁣the reason for their presence, they confiscated computers, ​mobile phones, printers and took⁤ him away ‌with his⁢ nephew, Eddy Agba, and a‍ cousin.

Interrogated without the ​presence of their lawyers in the building of the Central Criminal Investigation and Investigation Service (Scric), three⁤ of them‍ then learned that they were suspected of trying to overthrow‍ the regime. A very serious accusation in ⁤a country that was ruled with ‌an ⁢iron fist‍ for ⁣more than sixty ⁤years by the ‌Gnassingbé family.

The Togolese Regime’s Resentment and Paranoia

Behind this arrest, those close to the Agba‍ family believe ‌that the intended target is⁣ actually the sulfur businessman‍ Sow Bertin Agba, Cyrille’s‍ brother, who died a year​ earlier, in​ expatriate ‍in South Africa. A ‌successful security entrepreneur, Sow Bertin Agba was, in ⁤2011, at the heart⁤ of ⁢an international fraud case.

Thanks to temporary ‌relief, he then fled the country. After a‍ visit to Ghana,⁣ he was arrested ⁣by Interpol in Athens. Despite ​sending a Togolese delegation to extradite him, he managed to escape again. Based in South Africa, Sow Bertin Agba died suddenly in ‍May 2023, after lunch at a restaurant in Johannesburg.

A⁢ Lack of Trust in the​ Togolese Regime

Those close to Agba’s family are worried about the fate of the prisoner, who underwent cancer surgery and is still undergoing treatment. “She returned after more than ⁣ten​ years of exile because she believed that since her husband’s death, she was in no danger. ‌When she ‌arrived, she even went⁣ to the gendarmerie to redo her identity papers. A terrorist would do⁣ that? », protests​ one⁣ of his relatives.

Behind these accusations where no concrete evidence has emerged, this is Sow’s supposed fortune. It‍ is Bertin Agba who seems to be engendering a lack of trust in the Togolese regime.

A Call for Help from ​France

In this context, Aïssat Agba is hoping for help from ​France to get her Franco-Togolese husband released. An ‍embarrassing file for Paris that saves its relationship with Togo.​ On August ⁤15, President ⁤Faure Gnassingbé ⁣was one of the few heads​ of state to receive the invitation from the Elysée ​to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the landing in Provence.

“France must not ⁣leave my husband.⁢ It is also in French. But, at the moment, he still has not received assistance or a consular visit,” he laments to Aïssat Agba.