Thousands of supporters of Togo's main opposition party Saturday demonstrated in Lome against its leader's agreement to join the government, which has split the Union of Forces for Change (UFC). Protestors carried placards condemning as a 'killer' the UFC's president Gilchrist Olympio -- who struck a deal this week for the party to take up seven ministerial posts under President Faure Gnassingbe. They wore T-shirts bearing the image of UFC secretary general Jean-Pierre Fabre, who refuses to recognise Gnassingbe's reelection and has denounced the deal with his government. Other placards read 'Down with the Traitors' and 'The Fight Goes On.' Olympio said on Thursday that he had signed 'on behalf of the UFC, a political agreement to participate in a government of national recovery in the spirit of power-sharing with the ruling RPT (Togolese People's Rally) party.' But on Friday a statement signed by Fabre said the UFC national bureau had not been informed of the accord and was suspending Olympio, 74, temporarily from its ranks along with the seven new ministers. It called the deal 'against the interests of the party and the aspirations of the Togolese people.' After winning a new term in March, Gnassingbe told Prime Minister Gilbert Fossoun Houngbo to engage in discussions with the opposition with a view to forming a broad-based government. Olympio had been barred from running against Gnassingbe in the election because he failed to return from self-imposed exile to register, and Fabre represented the UFC in the poll. Fabre has so far refused to recognise the victory of Gnassingbe, claiming victory, and has led weekly protest marches in Lome since the election. As Saturday's march began, thousands of Gnassingbe supporters also demonstrated in a separate part of Lome to back the president's 'policy of reconciliation, social peacemaking and openness', in the words of RPT secretary general Silitoko Esso. Olympio is the son of Sylvanus Olympio, Togo's first president, who was assassinated in 1963 during a military coup by general Gnassingbe Eyadema, father of the current president. 