Doctor, niece arrested for an attempt to kill Benin President

Benin President Thomas Boni Yayi in September 2012 Photo Credit: (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.