Another coup was launched by soldiers of the Ouidah garrison on October 26. This one, however, was successful, and Major Mathieu Kérékou was installed as president. It occurred during a cabinet meeting between Maga and Ahomadégbé-Tomêtin. Kérékou had served as Maga's aide-de-camp in 1961. According to reports at the scene, soldiers abruptly arrived in the Cabinet room of the presidential palace and started firing bullets, but no one was injured. Kérékou called the triumvirate "truly a monster" as it showed "unpardonable incompetence", amongst other charges which were used to justify the coup. Kouandété was pardoned, although the former council was not. Maga, Ahomadégbé-Tomêtin, and Apithy spent more than nine years in prison before being freed by Kérékou in 1981. Later life and death After being released from incarceration, Ahomadégbé-Tomêtin was elected a Member of Parliament in 1991 under the National Rally for Democracy ticket and served at until 1995. He continued to lead the U.D.D. until his death on March 8, 2002, at the Hubert Maga National University and Hospital Center in Cotonou. No cause of death was given, although he was said to have suffered for a long time. The last of the triumvirate to die, he was awarded a state funeral and seven days of mourning, beginning on March 11. Flags were ordered to be flown at half-staff throughout the country during that period. President Kerekou visited Ahomadégbé-Tomêtin's house shortly after his death, praising him as "a man of character, conviction, a fighter and a wise man". The passing of Ahomadégbé-Tomêtin, which dominated newspapers in Dahomey, was received with more ambivalence than Kerekou's positive sentiments. Le Progres went so far as to say that Ahomadégbé-Tomêtin was "the monster of Abomey", and that he was "envied by his brothers due to his frankness and integrity ... Many of those now commending his patriotism, high morals and political exploits somehow killed him at one time or other." Le Matinal wrote an article on the man, entitled "Message from beyond: Ahomadegbe challenges Kerekou", questioning why "the perpetrators of crimes [are] so indecent as to shed crocodile tears". More neutral was Fraternite, noting that "Ahomadegbe, whose political might was extraordinary, was among the most feared politicians in Benin's contemporary history. He was dangerous to have either as friend or foe. To him, politics was a winding sentence with several commas but no full stop." Le Republicain compared his fall to that of