Gambiaj.com – (ABUJA, Nigeria) – Nigeria played a decisive role in foiling Sunday’s attempted coup in Benin, deploying air and ground forces within hours after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu received two urgent requests for military assistance from the Beninese government.
According to a Nigeria State House press release, President Tinubu ordered the swift intervention following an appeal from Cotonou to “safeguard constitutional order, protect national institutions, and ensure the security of the population” after coup plotters seized the National TV and a military camp at dawn.
The mutineers, led by Colonel Pascal Tigri, had declared the government toppled and claimed to have suspended all democratic institutions.
A Desperate Call for Help
The first distress request, sent through Benin’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, asked Nigeria to immediately deploy fighter jets to take control of the country’s airspace and help dislodge the coup plotters.
Acting on the appeal, President Tinubu ordered Nigerian Air Force fighter jets into Benin to provide critical aerial dominance as loyalist forces regrouped.
A second request followed shortly after, this time asking for Nigerian Air Force assets to conduct surveillance and rapid-intervention operations inside Benin under Beninese coordination. Cotonou also asked for the deployment of Nigerian ground forces “strictly for missions approved by the Beninese Command authority.”
General Olufemi Oluyede, Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff, confirmed that all the requests were executed immediately and that Nigerian troops were now on the ground assisting Benin’s forces. “Ours is to comply with the order of the Commander-in-Chief,” he said.
Nigeria’s Role in Reversing the Coup
The coordinated intervention proved decisive. With Nigerian air cover and subsequent ground support, loyalist forces reclaimed the National TV station, where the putschists had first appeared, and regained control of the affected military camp.
The rapid operations helped close the window of opportunity for the coup plotters and restored authority to President Patrice Talon’s government.
The support was conducted, President Tinubu emphasised, under the ECOWAS Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance, which allows for regional assistance to member states threatened by unconstitutional changes of government.
Tinubu: Nigeria Will Defend Democracy in the Region
In remarks following the restoration of constitutional order, President Tinubu praised Nigeria’s armed forces for acting with “gallantry” and for standing firm as defenders of democracy beyond Nigeria’s borders.
“Today, the Nigerian armed forces stood gallantly as a defender and protector of constitutional order in the Republic of Benin on the invitation of the government,” he said. “Nigeria stands firmly with the government and people of the Republic of Benin.”
Sunday’s events mark one of the most significant regional interventions since Tinubu assumed the ECOWAS chairmanship, underscoring Nigeria’s role as a central stabilizing power in West Africa at a time of rising military coups across the region.
