COTONOU, Benin — A state prosecutor in Benin says that authorities have thwarted an attempted coup d'etat and arrested the two men involved.

Justin Gbenameto said Sunday that businessman Johannes Dagnon and army commander Pamphile Zomahoun were arrested on Feb. 22. He said preliminary investigations show the two had tried to stop President Boni Yayi from returning to Cotonou so they could institute a military state.

Gbenameto said investigations are ongoing.

Three men were arrested in October and charged with conspiracy and attempted murder for a plot to poison the president. Dagnon is the cousin and partner of businessman Patrice Talon, whom authorities had also implicated in the poisoning case.

Yayi was first elected in 2006 in a landslide vote, and won re-election in 2011 in the tiny West African nation.