I’d find it hard to disagree with this.

The West African Bar Association (WABA) has called for the cancellation of the results of Togo’s election and formation a government of national unity, according to a statement from its president, Femi Falana.

“Any attempt to form a national government on the basis of the flawed elections will be resisted by the Togolese people,” Falana observed in a statement in Lagos Tuesday.

Falana said he was not surprised by the violence that greeted the declaration of the result of the presidential election, won by candidate Faure Gnassingbe of the ruling party, because, he said, Togolese were determined more than ever “to shake off the yoke of the Eyadema dynasty”.

Faure is the son of the late Togolese President Gnassingbe Eyadema.

African Union (AU) chairman and Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo announced Monday, after talks with Faure and opposition leader Gilchrist Olympio in Abuja, that the parties that featured in last Sunday’s elections had agreed to form a unity government.

Though Olympio was later quoted as having repudiated the supposed agreement, President Obasanjo insisted Tuesday that only a government of national unity can ensure peace and stability in Togo.

He urged the parties to respect the Abuja agreement.

Meanwhile, thousands continue to flee to Benin and the UN has dispatched an emergency refugee team there.

GENEVA, April 28 (UNHCR) ???????? As refugees fleeing general insecurity in Togo continue to cross into neighbouring Benin, UNHCR is deploying an emergency team to the country and trucking in further non-food supplies from its regional warehouse in Accra, Ghana, via Burkina Faso.

“The situation is still volatile in Togo and refugees are fleeing general insecurity, mainly into Benin. But many of them are telling us they want to stay close to the border to see if the situation settles down and they can return,” said UNHCR’s Africa bureau director, David Lambo.

By mid-day Thursday, more than 3,623 refugees had arrived in Benin since the election results were announced on Tuesday, with 2,000 crossing overnight on Wednesday ???????? the majority of them women and children. Over 500 of the refugees have been transferred to Come camp, 80 km from the capital Cotonou, where there is shelter, water and sanitation. In Athieme in southern Benin, where some 100 refugees arrived on Tuesday, only 19 refugees remain, as most preferred to join relatives in the area or move elsewhere. But as the security situation across the border in Togo is uncertain, all have opted to remain in Benin.

In Ghana, some 450 refugees have sought shelter, but there are initial reports of small numbers of new arrivals in the Dzozde district and Akatsi/Keta area fleeing general insecurity. A UNHCR mission is underway to check on the situation and verify the new arrivals.

“Generally the situation in Ghana is stable, with just small groups of people arriving, most of whom hope to be able to return to their home villages in the near future once things calm down,” said UNHCR’s Representative in Ghana, Thomas Albrecht.

UNHCR is mobilising funds and personnel to meet the demands of the new refugee influx. On Thursday, $500,000 was requested from the agency’s operational reserve to meet the immediate financial needs of the operation. In addition, a three-person emergency team of protection, programme and community services staff will deploy to Benin over the weekend to boost staff numbers already on the ground. Another three-person emergency team is on standby to be deployed at short notice.

In Ghana, the refugee agency is today loading up a convoy of four 10-tonne trucks to start taking non-food items for 5,000 people from its regional warehouse in Accra to Cotonou, where supplies for 2,500 people had already been pre-positioned. The 1,600-km journey via Burkina Faso is expected to last three days and the trucks will remain in Benin to assist with the delivery of assistance to refugees.

For the most part, violence has gone down in Togo. Again, for the most part, this is mainly because the military and police regime has reasserted itself. The State Department has spoken out against violence on both sides and wants to see a national unity government formed on the basis of reconciliation.

By Thursday, the mobs of machete-wielding demonstrators had disappeared from Lome’s opposition neighborhood of Be, scene of the heaviest clashes, while Lome’s downtown streets slowly came back to life.

Some shops had opened by late afternoon, but much of the capital remained shuttered and soldiers were visible everywhere.

But in Be, soldiers beat residents and forced them to dismantle crude roadblocks – symbols remaining from the days of unrest.

ééThis is what you’ve done, now take it apart,” one soldier screamed at several women walking past. The soldier whipped two of the women in the back with a steel cord, while other troops beat several teenage boys with clubs and batons, forcing them to work.

The troops grabbed motorcycle taxi drivers off their bikes and pressed them into cleaning streets piled high with stones, burned tires and garbage. The soldiers kept the bikes.

On Wednesday, people in Togo’s Tokoin neighborhood buried 6-year-old Fanou Kokou Marcelin. According to the boy’s father, he was shot and killed when gunmen wearing T-shirts bearing Gnassingbe’s face broke into the house at night and started shooting randomly.

Reports of violence in the countryside began emerging in the capital on Thursday.

Gerard Besson of the International Committee of the Red Cross said eight people died in political violence at the town of Atakpame, 100 miles north of Lome. Further details weren’t available and it wasn’t clear when the violence occurred.

Still, government officials on Thursday reopened Togo’s land borders, which had been closed two days before Sunday’s election.

The United States welcomed the decision to reopen borders and strongly condemned opposition parties’ agitation for violent protests over the election outcome.

State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said Thursday that reopening the borders was a éésign of progress, something we welcome.”

He urged the Gnassingbe’s government now to restore telephone service and let private radio and the press function freely.

Ereli said calls by Gnassingbe’s opponents to continue protests is éésomething we strongly condemn.”

ééWe continue to urge all political leaders to publicly insist that their supporters avoid violence,” he said, ééand we would certainly take this opportunity to hold accountable any leader who incites violence or contributes to violence.”

Ereli said the government and the opposition have an obligation to make peace with each other and join in dialogue aimed at reconciliation.

He also reasserted a statement Wednesday that the United States believes ééthere were serious questions about the legitimacy of the results and the legitimacy of the process. That is our judgment based on what we saw.”

A national unity government may be a good idea, as insofar it has been practically impossible to prevent each side from rioting at each other. It is important to remember that elections are not an end in themselves — especially ones that are totally rigged and held in haste. A national unity government would serve to serve broad appeals such as economic growth, stability, and preparing for real democratic elections on another date. A government of this type, being accountable to both sides, would also help foster the beginnings of free media, one of the key cornerstones in democratic development where so little of it exists.