Ivory Coast: return from exile for former mayor Noël Akossi Bendjo
Photo of former mayor Noel Akossi Bendjo on a campaign poster in 2013 in Abidjan.
(Illustration) AFP - ISSOUF SANOGO
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
Noël Akossi Bendjo is back in Ivory Coast after three years of exile.
The former mayor of the commune of Plateau landed on Saturday July 3 in Abidjan after a long stay in Paris.
This high figure of the PDCI had chosen to stay out of the country after being accused of embezzlement of public funds and sentenced in absentia by the Ivorian justice.
Charges that Noël Akossi Bendjo has always denied and defined as a political cabal of the ruling party.
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With our correspondent in Abidjan
,
Sidy Yansané
The worries begin in August 2018 for Noël Akossi Bendjo.
On a mission in Europe, the city councilor, who then counts seventeen years as mayor of the Plateau, is abruptly dismissed from the most powerful municipality of Abidjan, against a background of accusations of embezzlement of public funds, forgery and use of forgery. .
Before being sentenced by Ivorian justice to 20 years in prison a year later.
The heavyweight and member of the political bureau of the PDCI declares himself innocent and decides to stay in Paris, believing to bear the cost of the rivalry between the head of state Alassane Ouattara and the president of the party Henri Konan Bédié, whose alliance is tears two years before the presidential election.
"Without hatred or spirit of revenge"
It was not until last May that the executive secretary of the Maurice Kakou Guikahué party announced the imminent return of Noël Akossi Bendjo, authorized by the President of the Republic, but without the assurance of a pardon or an amnesty.
Saturday evening, the former mayor was welcomed by jubilant activists at the Maison du PDCI.
His first words go to Henri Konan Bédié, as well as to the Head of State Alassane Ouattara, to whom he presents “
sincere thanks for having accepted the dialogue
.
The elected official specifies that he "
returns without hatred or a spirit of revenge
", and follows in the footsteps of his political counterparts, calling for reconciliation and the unity of Côte d'Ivoire.
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To read also:
the return of Gbagbo, "a new opportunity for a true reconciliation"
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