How I escaped from Benin coup attempt – Dele Momodu
Dele Momodu
Dele Momodu, the publisher and politician, has explained how he could have been involved in the recent Benin Republic coup attempt except for last-minute issues with his vehicle’s papers.
According to him, the setback with particulars “was what saved us” as it stopped the journey he planned to start at 5 a.m., which would have had him in Benin Republic at the exact period the coup was unfolding.
Momodu stated his experience on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Monday.
He said: “Yesterday, to me, was very surreal. I was going to wake up in the morning at 5 a.m., 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.
“Unfortunately, the night before I had all my international papers. But then I asked my driver for the vehicle particulars, and he only had the photocopies. 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.
“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.
“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, at the time this melodrama was ongoing.”
Speaking further, Dele Momodu said the experience reminded him of how he escaped into exile in 1995.
“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 I crossed the Aflaou border to Ghana, and from Ghana into England, where I would live for the next three years.
“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.”
