In Togo, the Martin Luther King movement – a civil society organization – is appealing to the government as the start of the new school year approaches on September 26. Three teachers from the Togo Teachers’ Union (SET) and five students are still in detention. They have not been tried since their arrest in April. Their place is not in prison, says the Martin Luther King Movement which pleads for their release.
According to the communiqué of the Martin Luther King Movement, it has been five months since “for having launched the slogans of strike demanding the improvement of their working conditions, teachers languish in prison as well as pupils left their classes to demand the return of their educators”.
Pastor Edoh Komi, president of the Martin Luther King Movement – The voice of the voiceless in Togo – recognizes that acts of vandalism may have been committed, but calls on the authorities for clemency.
“There have been acts of violence that the Martin Luther King Movement deplores, but that should not make these children residents of prison. They are children and their place is not in prison, but in schools. The fact that they are in prison for five months, the punishment is too harsh. »
HASwhen the three teachers who are members of the SET are detained in the capital, Lomé, the five students are in detention in Dapaong, in the northern Savanes region.
The Martin Luther King Movement wants them to be released as the new school year approaches on September 26.
The civil society organization also advocates that ” in the name of social cohesion “, the government reverses its decision to dismiss 116 teachers SET, a union not recognized by the Togolese authorities.
Mawouegna Kokou Miwonounyue, secretary general of the Togolese Teachers’ Union, is one of the 116 teachers dismissed. To support his family, he explains that he returned to the village to work in the field.
“We can only ask for clemency from the Head of State. Given the suffering of the families, the detainees and the 116 dismissed, since April 25, we humbly invite the Head of State to reconsider his decision by releasing the three comrades in detention, the five students and to restore the 116 teachers who lost their jobs. As from the beginning, the authorities refused any negotiation with our organization. Today it is difficult to know what the government wants from us. The intermediaries are doing their best to make things right. We can only count on the mediators”, he underlines.
Read also: Togo: the State dismisses more than 100 striking teachers
While this Friday, in Lomé, the National Council for Social Dialogue is meeting, at government level, it is said “to act with a view to calming down to prepare for a serene, peaceful return to school, conducive to the smooth running of school and educational activities. »