Jean Codo, Benin Republic Businessman Investigated By EFCC Dies in Kirikiri Prison

Businessman from the Republic of Benin, Jean Codo, who is being investigated for alleged €29m fraud by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has died at the Kirikiri prison, Lagos.

Codo, who owns Transport and Port Management System Limited, died on Thursday due to lack of proper medical attention.

He was granted bail in November 2019 but could not fulfil the bail conditions and despite appeals to have him released on compassionate ground due to COVID-19 outbreak, the Nigerian authorities refused until he died in custody.

The Beninese was said to have collapsed in prison and rushed to the military hospital in Lagos where he died on Thursday morning.

Like Codo, a suspected cross-border robbery kingpin, Hamani Tijani, died at the Kirikiri Maximum Prisons in January 2014 after suffering partial stroke for nine months.

Spokesperson for the Nigerian Prisons Service, Lagos Command at the time, DSP Biyi Jeje, confirmed the development to journalists.

Jeje said 42-year-old Tijani died in the clinic of the maximum prison.

A citizen of Niger Republic, Tijani was arrested in 2003 in Benin Republic and spent 11 years in prison while facing trial before his death at Kirikiri.

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