20100528
africa news

A veteran opposition leader in Togo, Gilchrist Olympio, has agreed to join a power-sharing deal with the government. He said his party will get eight ministerial posts in the coalition. But some members of his party - such as the former presidential candidate, Jean-Pierre Fabre - disagreed with the move.

President Gnassingbe who took power in 2005 from his father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, who had ruled since 1967, won re-election in March although the opposition alleged irregularities in the vote-counting system.

In a report with BBC's Focus on Africa, Olympio - whose father was assassinated in 1963 two years after being elected Togo's first president said he wanted to save Togo from the "political crisis" which has lasted "40 years.

He said his Union of Forces for Change (UFC) party would join with President Gnassingbe's ruling Togolese People's Rally (RPT) party to give a new chance to the population so as to find a solution to the political crisis.

Togo has for years been the target of criticism over its human rights record and political governance.