How I Escaped Benin Coup – Dele Momodu Explains

Media mogul and former presidential aspirant under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dele Momodu, has revealed how a disrupted travel plan may have saved him from being caught in the failed coup attempt in the Benin Republic.

Momodu shared his experience while speaking on Sunrise Daily, a Channels Television programme on Monday, noting that he had planned to be in Cotonou at the exact time the coup scare unfolded on Sunday.

Narrating the close call, Momodu said, “Yesterday to me was very surreal. I was going to wake up in the morning at 5 am to head straight to Cotonou, have a quick breakfast, and then head out to Lome, and then from Lome head out to Ghana. I had done that trip too many times, and it’s something I love to do, especially on Sundays, because there would be no traffic.”

He explained that the journey, which he had mapped out thoroughly, was abruptly cancelled late on Saturday due to an issue with his vehicle documents.

Momodu disclosed that the night before his planned trip, he discovered that his driver only had a photocopy of the vehicle particulars.

“Unfortunately, the night before I had all my international [travel documents], but then I asked my driver for the vehicle particulars, and he only had the photocopy. I wasn’t comfortable with that. I searched everywhere, my two offices in Lagos. I searched in the night, and maybe around 11 or thereabout, I decided that look, we must have botched the trip,” he said.

According to him, the missing original document led to the cancellation of the trip. “I called my friend Rotimi… whom we were travelling together with, along with another friend… I called everybody in the middle of the night and said I’m sorry we won’t be able to make the trip, and that was what saved us,” he said.

Tying the experience to his spiritual beliefs, the Ovation publisher said he believes God intervened to prevent him from being present during the unrest.

“I was born in an Aladura church. So I believed in spirituality, and I believe that somehow God must have intervened because we would have been right inside Benin Republic, as at the time this melodrama was ongoing,” he said.

He added that his Nigerian-registered vehicle could have made him easily noticeable during the crisis, potentially putting him in danger.

Reflecting on his history of fleeing military rule, Momodu recalled how he escaped Nigeria during the Abacha regime.

“When I escaped from Nigeria on July 25, 1995, I escaped through the Seme border into Cotonou from where I went to Lome… from there crossed the Aflaou border to Ghana and from Ghana into England where I would live for the next three years,” he said.

He said the Benin coup scare brought back those painful memories and raised fresh concerns about democratic stability in Africa.

“I thought democracy had taken root in Africa, but it seems we are going backwards, which is very unfortunate. Let’s thank God it was quickly aborted,” he added.

Benin’s government on Sunday confirmed that it had foiled a coup attempt after a group of soldiers announced on state television that they had taken over power from President Patrice Talon.

The failed attempt adds to the growing list of military takeovers in West Africa, following coups in Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea, and most recently, Guinea-Bissau.