{"id":6906,"date":"2024-09-26T06:56:10","date_gmt":"2024-09-26T06:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/diamondtvzambia.com\/?p=6805"},"modified":"2024-09-26T06:56:10","modified_gmt":"2024-09-26T06:56:10","slug":"benin-arrests-three-men-over-suspected-coup-plot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diamondtvzambia.com\/staging\/7839\/benin-arrests-three-men-over-suspected-coup-plot\/","title":{"rendered":"BENIN ARRESTS THREE MEN OVER SUSPECTED COUP PLOT"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Three men in Benin, including a former minister and the man in charge of President Patrice Talon’s security, have been arrested on suspicion of plotting a coup, the state prosecutor has said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ex-sports minister Oswald Homeky was caught on Tuesday while handing over six bags of money to the head of the Republican Guard, Elonm Mario Metonou, the prosecutor told a press conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Investigators said Col Djimon Dieudonne Tevoedjre was being bribed not to resist a coup d’etat planned for Friday in the small West African nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also detained was a businessman, Olivier Boko – a friend of President Talon – who had recently indicated he had political ambitions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Boko’s lawyers and supporters condemned what they called his “abduction” and have demanded his immediate release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Investigations are ongoing to identify further suspects, the prosecutor said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benin, once praised as a multi-party democracy, has taken a more autocratic turn under the presidency of Patrice Talon, rights groups say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Talon announced he would not seek a third term in office in the 2026 elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There have been eight military takeovers and several other coup attempts in West and Central Africa since 2020. (BBC News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three men in Benin, including a former minister and the man in charge of President Patrice Talon’s security, have been arrested on suspicion of plotting a coup, the state prosecutor has said. Ex-sports minister Oswald Homeky was caught on Tuesday while handing over six bags of money to the head of the Republican Guard, Elonm …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6918,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","content-type":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t