Trio’s plot to poison president backfires

on Monday and described the alleged plot, including a meeting in a hotel room and a plan to replace Yayi’s anti-pain medicine with poison.
Prosecutors say the president’s niece and his doctor were promised US$2 million to carry out the plot, with the ex-minister acting as an intermediary.
The 60-year-old Yayi is the current chairman of the African Union.
“They are formally charged with criminal conspiracy and attempted murder,” Justin Gbenameto told AFP of the three suspects, adding they were charged late on Monday following their arrests on Sunday.
Those arrested were Moudjaidou Soumanou, former minister of commerce, Yayi’s personal doctor Ibrahim Mama Cisse, and Zouberath Kora-Seke, one of Yayi’s nieces who worked at the presidency.
They were 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.
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.
Details of the alleged plot were still emerging, but an aide to the president said on condition of anonymity that the motive may have involved lucrative contracts.
The aide said the plot may have been linked to a decision to end a monopoly for a company supplying materials for the cotton industry as well as a major port contract.
According to Gbenameto, the instigator of the plot was alleged to be a Benin businessman named Patrice Talon, a former ally of the president’s who has recently been at odds with him.
Talon is out of the country and has not been detained, but Gbenameto told AFP that Benin authorities intended to issue an arrest warrant for him.
Soumanou, the former minister of commerce, is currently head of SODECO cotton firm.
Both the port and cotton industry in the West African nation of some nine million people are major sectors of the country’s economy. — AFP.