Benin state prosecutor says arrests made over suspected coup plot

COTONOU (Reuters) - Benin's state prosecutor said on Wednesday a former sports minister and a prominent businessman have been detained on suspicion of plotting a coup.

Ex-sports minister Oswald Homeky was caught after 1 a.m. on Tuesday while handing over six bags of cash to the head of the republican guard, who is also in charge of President Patrice Talon's security.

Investigators said they found that Homeky and Beninese businessman Olivier Boko had paid off the military commander to not resist a coup d'etat planned for Sept. 27.

Boko and the commander were also detained and investigations are ongoing to identify other suspects, prosecutor Elon'm Mario Metonou said in a statement.

There have been eight military takeovers and several other coup attempts since 2020 in West and Central Africa, a region that had made strides to shed its reputation as a "coup belt" only for persistent insecurity and corruption to reopen the door to actions by military leaders.

(Reporting by Pulcherie Adjoha; Additional reporting by David Lewis in Nairobi; Writing by Sofia Christensen; Editing by Chris Reese and Bill Berkrot)

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