by a court for allegedly dishonoring the President and disrupting public order. On 6 August 2002, the RPT Central Committee voted unanimously to expel Kodjo from the party, along with former National Assembly President Dahuku Péré, for high treason; he was also expelled from the prestigious Order of Mono on 18 July. After leaving Togo, Kodjo lived in exile in France, and from there, he continued his criticisms of Eyadéma. The Togolese government issued an international arrest warrant for Kodjo in mid-September 2002, falsely accusing him of corruption and saying that he had fled Togo to avoid prosecution for it. The government also complained about Radio France Internationale's broadcasting of an interview with Kodjo in September, which RFI had done despite government pressure. He denounced the amendment to eliminate presidential term limits, saying that Fambaré Ouattara Natchaba initially made that proposal publicly and supported the proposal for the RPT's internal reasons. Following the disputed June 2003 presidential election, Kodjo said in an interview with the newspaper Motion d'information that Eyadéma had lost the election contrary to the official results. Accusing Eyadéma of remaining in power through violence, Kodjo said that Eyadéma should admit defeat and leave politics to resolve the country's political troubles and prevent civil war. He returned to Togo on 8 April 2005, following Eyadéma's death, but was promptly imprisoned for alleged misappropriation of funds while serving as Director-General of the Autonomous Port of Lomé. Indeed, Agbeyome Messan Kodjo had never mismanaged public funds. In September 2005, he formed a new party, the Democratic Alliance for the Fatherland (known simply as the Alliance), and Dahuku Péré. He later ran for election to the position of President of the Togolese Football Federation, but at its extraordinary congress on 9 January 2007, he placed second behind Avlessi Adaglo Tata, receiving 14 votes from delegates against 24 for Tata; he placed ahead of Eyadéma's son Rock Gnassingbé, who was the Federation's incumbent president and received eight votes. Kodjo announced in early August 2008 that he would stand as the candidate of a new party, the Organisation pour bâtir dans l'union un Togo solidaire (OBUTS), in the 2010 presidential election. He formally submitted his candidacy on 14 January 2010. Although the deadline for submitting candidacies was 15 January, Kodjo was the first person to submit his candidacy formally. Upon learning that he was first, Kodjo declared that it was "a very good