[2] The coup was launched by soldiers of the Ouidah garrison[3] and occurred during a Presidential Council meeting between Maga and Ahomadégbé-Tomêtin.

[note 1][4] According to reports at the scene, soldiers abruptly arrived in the Cabinet room of the Presidential Palace in the capital Porto-Novo and started firing bullets,[3] but no one was injured.

[5] Kérékou led the first armed company of soldiers to break into the meeting, where he declared the end of the Presidential Council.

[6][7] Kérékou announced the coup on national radio (which later become ORTB) by saying that the "three headed figure [was] truly a monster" beset by "congenital deficiency...notorious inefficiency and...unpardonable incompetence.

[10] Kérékou proclaimed the formal accession of his government to Marxism–Leninism on 30 November 1974, in a speech before an assembly of stunned notables in the city of Abomey.