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Benin Political Risks Rise on Calls for President's Impeachment, IHS Says
The risk of “political instability” in Benin is rising after questions about President Thomas Boni Yayi’s alleged involvement in an investment scheme spurred lawmakers to call for his impeachment, said Kissy Agyeman-Togobo, an analyst with IHS Global Insight.
A letter signed by 50 of the West African nation’s 83 members of parliament this week called on Boni to “submit himself to the courts” after government members were seen posing on television with the management of Investment Consultancy and Computering Services, London-based Agyeman- Togobo said in an e-mailed note today.
Candide Azannai, spokesman for the Benin government, said Boni wasn’t involved in the alleged investment scheme and only posed for a photograph after meeting officials from the company in 2009. The company, known as ICC Services, was based in Cotonou, Benin’s commercial capital.
ICC Services was promising investors returns of between 20 and 50 percent and as many as 70,000 depositors may have given money, Agyeman-Togobo said. The plan was later discovered to be a Ponzi scheme, where returns are paid in money from new investors, instead of actual profits.
“With elections looming in 2011, domestic pressure on Boni is expected to rise to unprecedented levels,” Agyeman-Togobo said. “Any hopes by the president of renewing his mandate are likely to have been dashed.”
On July 8, Boni dismissed and arrested Security Minister Armand Zinzindohoue for his involvement in ICC Services, Work Minister Gerard Kuassi said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Serge-David Zoueme in Cotonou via Emily Bowers in Accra at ebowers1@bloomberg.net.
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