Abidjan - (Ivory Coast): Arrest of "yet" another major opposition militant

Abidjan ( Ivory Coast ): Arrest of  " yet " another major opposition leader.



The influential head of women of the main political party, Ivorian Popular Front (FPI), the party of former President Laurent Gbagbo (the legit government overthrown by the international community), was arrested last week during a demonstration, said her lawyer Me Toussaint Dako.

"The charges against her are not yet known," he told the local media.

The arrest of Marie-Odette Lourougnon, whose aura among women of the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) is supplanted by that of the former first lady Simone Gbagbo, is related to the fratricidal war that is tearing up the party.

Friday, Ms. Lourougnon was arrested with five other activists while protesting outside the headquarters of the newspaper "Notre Voie", an organ of the party hijacked by the government of President Ouattara in favor of Lorougnon's rival Pascal Affi N'Guessan.

Main opposition party, the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) is divided into two camps: one wants to compete in the presidential election of October behind Affi N'Guessan, but the second rejects this scenario and made the release of former President Laurent Gbagbo "the heart of the party's control strategy."

Laurent Gbagbo is jailed since late 2011 in The Hague, where he is to be tried by the International Criminal Court for "crimes against humanity" allegedly committed during the crisis resulting from his refusal to accept the results of a fraudulent vote in which France declared winner the current President Alassane Ouattara. Ouattara was elected in 2010 by means of fraudulent voting tactics, such as illegals voting, multiple votes per person, and fictitious voters getting ballots in the North, a stronghold for Ouattara’s rebels and armed militias since September of 2002. Gbagbo refused to recognize this corrupt election, as any good politician would have done.