COTONOU: Benin has charged President Thomas Boni Yayi’s doctor, niece and an ex-minister over an alleged plot to poison him, the public prosecutor said yesterday, in a case that has rocked the small west African nation.
The charges came after the authorities announced the arrests of the three on Monday and described the alleged plot, including a meeting in a Brussels hotel room and a plan to replace Yayi’s anti-pain medicine with poison.
Police say there were also claims of a plan for two of the suspects — Yayi’s niece and his personal doctor — to be assassinated after the plot was carried out in order to conceal what happened.
Prosecutors say the niece Zouberath Kora-Seke and the doctor Ibrahim Mama Cisse were promised 1bn CFA francs ($2m) to carry out the plot, with former commerce minister Moudjaidou Soumanou acting as an intermediary. The 60-year-old Yayi is also the current chairman of the African Union.
“They are formally charged with criminal conspiracy and attempted murder,” public prosecutor Justin Gbenameto said, adding they were charged on Monday following their arrests Sunday.
The three are being held in prison in the economic capital Cotonou, Gbenameto said.
A lawyer for the former minister and Yayi’s doctor, Joseph Djogbenou, declined to comment when contacted by AFP. A lawyer for Yayi’s niece could not immediately be reached for comment.
Gbenameto said the plot did not succeed, and a source in the presidency said Yayi appeared in good health. According to Gbenameto, the instigator of the plot was alleged to be Benin businessman Patrice Talon, a former Yayi ally.
AFP
