[Info RFI] Madjoulba case: the Togolese colonel assassinated with his own weapon

Togolese soldiers patrol the streets of Lomé on February 24 after President Faure Gnassingbé has just been re-elected.

PIUS UTOMI EKPEI / AFP

Text by: Pierre Firtion Follow

5 mins

In Togo, six months after the death of Colonel Bitala Madjoulba, - assassinated on the night of May 3 to 4, a few hours after the inauguration of President Faure Gnassingbé, which he had just attended - the investigation seems to be progressing.

The ballistic expertise carried out by France and Ghana spoke: the commander of the 1st rapid intervention battalion (BIR) was assassinated with his own weapon, a Beretta brand revolver.

In the wake of these results, the judge in charge of the case launched a rogatory commission in order to have several soldiers heard.

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Murdered with his own Beretta.

This is the unexpected conclusion reached by French experts in the investigation into

.

The latter, who submitted their report to the Togolese courts in August, were responsible for comparing the bullet found on the body of the BIR commander with 152 casings from 76 different weapons seized by the Togolese authorities.

The cartridges were sent to France at the end of June via an international letter of request as part of a request for mutual legal assistance.

A similar approach had been taken with the Ghanaian authorities.

Verdict: " 

[of the two expertises]

 ", assures on condition of anonymity a source at the heart of the investigation.

This conclusion is bad news for investigators: the weapon will not lead them directly to the assassin, as they might initially have hoped.

Anyway, following the results of these ballistic examinations, Awi Adjoli, the judge in charge of the case issued a rogatory commission.

The goal: to have judicial police officers hear certain soldiers from the camp where Colonel Madjoulba was officiating.

According to the same source, the hearings are currently underway and have not yet resulted in any detention.

Victim of a settling of accounts?

Six months later, the thick veil of mystery that surrounds this assassination has not yet dissipated.

The same question has burned lips since May 4: who could have killed Colonel Madjoulba in his office, a few hours after the inauguration of Faure Gnassingbé which he had just attended?

The suspicions are from the beginning on the residents of the camp where he officiated even if the place is neither fenced nor closely watched.

The 76 weapons seized by the Togolese authorities - and from which the expert cartridges came - come from inside the camp.

Why then would Bitala Madjoulba have been assassinated by one of his military colleagues?

" 

 ", decrypts a shrewd observer.

“ 

 ”.

Does this mean that the BIR commander was the victim of a settling of accounts in connection with possible trafficking?

Or should we see in this assassination a message addressed to the presidential clan?

Like his big brother, the current ambassador of Togo in France, Calixte Batossie Madjoulba, the colonel was visibly close to the president.

" 

 ", decrypts a political figure off the microphone.

What seems established is that the colonel knew his attacker (s).

This Sunday, May 3, the senior officer attended the inauguration ceremony of the re-elected president in the afternoon.

Investiture which he then celebrates at the officers' mess.

In the middle of the evening, he returns to his office, which also serves as a bunk.

What happens then?

Mystery.

His secretary, who was sleeping in an adjoining room, discovers in the early morning her body lying on the sofa.

Awakened at 5am, she was alerted by a burning smell.

According to a source, the victim's blood flowed into an electrical outlet, causing a slight short circuit.

Disturbing element, the secretary would have confided to the investigators to have heard, a few hours earlier in a semi-sleep, a burst of voice and the colonel to launch in French: " 

 ".

However, investigators discovered that the private door leading to the colonel's office, usually closed, had remained open.

Which suggests that Bitala Madjoulba would have welcomed the one or those who were going to assassinate him.

The remains of Colonel Madjoulba still in the Lomé morgue

The BIR commander was shot and killed.

Pulled in the neck, it went to lodge in the sternum of the victim.

The shot having been fired at close range, there remained, according to an informed source, a trace of burn on the level of the neck which could have given the impression that the colonel had been cut throat, as the rumor has long suggested.

According to our information, six months after the events, the body of the victim is still in the Lomé morgue.

However, the autopsy was long overdue.

If it is true that in

people who have died violently must be buried on the day of death, why has the body still not been returned to the family?

According to a well-informed source, the Togolese justice would have suggested the idea of ​​performing a second autopsy of the body.

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