(AFP-File, Emmanuel Dunand)
Three persons including the personal doctor and niece of the President
of Benin Thomas Boni Yayi have been arrested by the authorities for
allegedly attempting to poison him.
The arrest which was made on Sunday, October 21, 2012, alleged that
Moudjaidou Soumanou, the former minister of commerce; Ibrahim Mama
Cisse, Yayi's personal doctor; and Zouberath Kora-Seke, one of Yayi's
nieces, who worked at the presidency, had set a plot to poison the
president through his niece.
According o Aljazeera, An aide to the president, speaking on condition
of anonymity, alleged that 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. Both the port and cotton
industry in the West African nation of some nine million people are
major sectors of the country's economy.
While speaking to journalists on Monday, public prosecutor Justin
Gbenameto said that 'prosecutors have requested their indictment for
criminal conspiracy and attempted assassination of the head of state'.
However while the doctor and the niece have been reprimanded, the
former minister is said to be out of town but would soon be arrested.