Bénin Republic President Patrice Talon
Military authorities in the Republic of Bénin have foiled a coup plot against the country’s President, Patrice Talon, scheduled to take place this Friday.
Local reports said that a presidential guard and two others have been arrested in connection with the foiled coup attempt.
The two others accused of plotting the coup are a former sports minister and a businessman with close ties to the President.
The arrested coup suspects have been charged with the crime before Elonm Metonou, the special prosecutor at Benin’s court for financial crimes and terrorism.
“It appears the Republican Guard commander in charge of the president’s security was engaged by the minister Oswald Homeky and Olivier Boko in order to carry out a coup by force on Sept. 27, 2024,” the prosecutor said.
The court said Homeky was detained at around 1:00 am on Tuesday as he was handing over six bags of cash totalling 1.5 billion West African CFA francs ($2.5 million) to the commander, Djimon Dieudonne Tevoedjre.
Boko, a longtime friend of President Patrice Talon, was arrested separately overnight Monday to Tuesday in the country’s capital Cotonou.
According to investigators, Homeky and Boko paid off the military commander to not resist the planned coup.
It was gathered that the President’s bosom friend had recently started indicating interesting to run for the presidency in 2026.
President Talon’s second term in office will end in 2026, and he is prohibited by the constitution from running again.
According to the prosecutor, investigations are ongoing to arrest other suspects.
Periscope International recalls that West African countries have in recent years experienced eight successful military takeovers and several attempts.
Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger are now effectively under military rule and have threatened to exit from the subregional bloc, ECOWAS.
ECOWAS is making efforts to form a standby force to fight violent extremism, terrorism and unconstitutional takeover of power in West Africa.
