Dele Momodu Reveals a Last-Minute Hold-Up Kept Him Out of Benin During Coup

Publisher and former PDP presidential hopeful Dele Momodu says a sudden delay prevented him from being in the Republic of Benin when a coup attempt took place.

Mr Momodu told an interviewer that he had planned an early morning drive. His intended route was to leave at 5 a.m., stop in Cotonou for breakfast, then continue to Lomé and on to Ghana. He said he had made that journey many times and expected an easy trip with little traffic.

The trip was aborted after he discovered his driver had only a photocopy of the vehicle papers. The missing original prompted a late night search through his offices in Lagos and then a decision to cancel. He called his travel companions, including a friend named Rotimi, to tell them the trip would not proceed. Mr Momodu said that cancellation likely saved them.

He described the episode as surreal and suggested a spiritual explanation. As someone raised in an Aladura church, he said he believes divine intervention kept them from being in Benin during the unrest. He added that traveling in a Nigerian registered vehicle could have made them stand out.

Mr Momodu welcomed reports that the coup was quickly stopped. He recalled his 1995 flight from Nigeria through Seme into Cotonou, then Lomé, and onward to Ghana before travelling to England, a move he said kept him safe at that time.

Reflecting on the failed coup, he expressed concern about democratic gains in Africa. He said he had hoped democracy was secure, but the incident suggests a worrying reversal. He closed by giving thanks that the crisis was averted and that those he knows were not caught up in it.