APA-Cotonou (Benin) In March 2023, the main opposition party ‘Les Democrates’ in Benin introduced a special amnesty bill for Reckya Madougou, Joel Aivo and other exiled opponents.
On January 03, 2024, the National Assembly’s Law Commission rejected a special bill granting amnesty to opponents in detention and the return of exiles.
The text was blocked by the 17 majority deputies and approved by the minority of six elected members of the ‘Les Democrates’ party who make up the law commission. According to Habibou Woroucoubou, MP, the majority of the law commission simply followed the instructions of its leader, President Patrice Talon. He complains that the text has not been studied in depth, since the members of the commission have not attempted to make any amendments. “If they had the will to support or vote in favor of this text, it should have been studied from the point of view of both form and substance,” explains the opponent.
But there’s more to come. The draft law will then be sent to the plenary for examination. And clearly, the text has very little chance of making it, given the unfavorable opinion of the Law Commission. The opposition has only 28 deputies out of 109. Said political analyst Eugène Alossoukpo, “we can’t expect any miracles in plenary. All in all, there’s no chance of this law prospering.”
Aware that the special amnesty bill for Reckya Madougou, Joel Aivo and exiled opponents will not pass in its current form, opposition MPs are already announcing that they will introduce another text if it is rejected by the National Assembly. “We’re not here to give up. Our objective is clear: we must free our comrades, come what may. If to do so, we still have to introduce this text, we will. And that’s because we believe that our comrades are being held solely for political reasons, and we think that it’s politically that they need to be released,” says Habibou Woroucoubo, MP for the ‘Les Democrates’ party.
However, according to political analyst Eugene Alossoukpo, in Benin’s current political context, it is almost impossible for an amnesty law to be passed in favour of Reckya Madougou, Joel Aivo and the others. As far as he is concerned, the Parti Les Démocrates did not want to make any concessions. “The first political mistake they made was to reject the activity report of the President of the National Assembly. The second mistake was rejecting the 2024 state budget, even though the amendments they had requested had been incorporated. Taken together, these facts make it difficult for them to negotiate with their colleagues in the majority,” Mr. Alossoukpo explains.
As Eugene Alossoukpo sees it, it is not in President Patrice Talon’s political interest to release Reckya Madougou and Joel Aïvo before the general elections in January 2026. He believes that these two opponents at liberty could entirely distort the political calculations of the camp currently in power. “Majority deputies are certainly not going to offer opposition deputies the knife with which to cut off their heads in 2026. There’s not much to hope for from the opposition, short of a political cataclysm,” the analyst concludes.
The ‘Les Democrates’ party, for its part, is adamant that unless it can count on President Talon to free the opposition in prison, everything will be settled if the current regime leaves power in 2026. “At our level, we’re already working to take power in 2026, and under these conditions, we won’t go and ask someone for forgiveness for the release of political prisoners, we’ll do it ourselves,” warned Habibou Woroucoubou.
The proposed Special Amnesty Law, which has been stirring political debate in Benin for several months, aims to free Reckya Madougou, former Minister of Justice under ex-President Boni Yayi. A former candidate of the ‘Les Democrates’ party for the April 2021 presidential election, her file was rejected for lack of sponsorship.
Arrested in March 2021, Ms Madougou was sentenced in December of the same year to 20 years’ imprisonment for “financing terrorism.” Her supporters had denounced a political plot orchestrated by the Talon regime, to remove a troublesome opponent for the 2021 presidential election.
The ‘Les Democrates’ party is also fighting for the release of Joel Aivo, a teacher at the University of Abomey-Calavi and an unsuccessful candidate in the 2021 presidential election. Arrested in April 2021, last December he was sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment for plotting against state security.
The amnesty law should also allow exiled opponents such as businessman Sébastien Ajavon and Boni Yayi’s former Economy Minister Komi Koutche to return home.
RK/ac/fss/as/APA