Noël Akossi Bendjo is back in Ivory Coast after three years in exile. The former mayor of the municipality of Plateau landed on Saturday, July 3 in Abidjan after a long stay in Paris. This high figure in the PDCI had chosen to stay out of the country after being accused of embezzlement of public funds and convicted in the absence of Ivorian justice. Accusations that Noël Akossi Bendjo has always denied and defined as a political cavalier for the ruling party.
as reported from Abidjan, Sidy Yansane
The worries begin in August 2018 for Noël Akossi Bendjo. On a mission in Europe, the city council, which then counts seventeen years as mayor of the plateau, is suddenly fired from the most powerful municipality of Abidjan, amid accusations of embezzlement of public funds, counterfeiting and use of counterfeits. Before he was sentenced by Ivorian justice to 20 years in prison a year later.
The heavyweight and member of the PDCI’s political bureau declares himself innocent and decides to stay in Paris and believes he should bear the cost of the rivalry between head of state Alassane Ouattara and party president Henri Konan Bédié, whose alliance is tears. two years before the presidential election.
“Without hatred or vengeance”
It was not until May last year that the Secretary-General of the Maurice Kakou Guikahué Party announced that Noël Akossi Bendjo, approved by the President of the Republic, was representing his return, but without a declaration of pardon or amnesty.
On Saturday night, 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 gives “sincere thanks for accepting the dialogue.” The elected official specifies that he “returns without hatred or revenge” and follows in the footsteps of his political counterparts and demands reconciliation and unity in Côte d’Ivoire.
►Also read:the return of Gbagbo, “a new opportunity for real reconciliation”
.
