Benin: a baker sentenced to 6 months in prison for selling unfit bread and insult

A baker was prosecuted on Thursday, July 31, 2025, at the Abomey-Calavi court for selling bread deemed hazardous to public health and for threatening a control officer on duty. He is also accused of flouting an administrative closure order.

At the stand this July 31, 2025, a baker from Calavi-Kpota was heard for putting unfit products into circulation and a hostile behavior towards state agents.

Everything would have started with a quality control mission carried out in his workshop, during which inspectors noted deplorable hygienic conditions. The premise, not meeting any regulatory standard, was immediately ordered to be closed.

Far from submitting, the baker reacted strongly by uttering, according to witnesses reported by Bip radio, threats in the Fon language against the head of the control team. A behavior considered as an insult to an officer in the performance of his duties.

Seal violated and equipment secretly moved

Worse, the defendant illegally reopened the premises under seal to recover equipment, which he then transported to another location, Zinvié. This act of defiance against the judicial authority was perceived as an aggravating circumstance by the prosecution.

The Abomey-Calavi court was not lenient. The baker was sentenced to three (03) months of imprisonment, three (03) months suspended, along with a fine of two hundred thousand (200,000) CFA francs.