The federal government, on Wednesday, arraigned five of the alleged masterminds of a plot to overthrow the administration of President Bola Tinubu through a coup d’état.
The defendants were docked before trial by Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court in Abuja.
Following their plea of innocence to the charge, the court ordered that they should be remanded in custody of the Department of State Services (DSS).
The remand order followed an application by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, who was in court to personally handle the case.
Meanwhile, the court slated Monday to commence a full-blown hearing of the case.
Before the matter was adjourned, the defence lawyers, led by Mohammed Ndayako, SAN, prayed the court to order the DSS to grant them access to their clients.
They said such access would enable them to effectively prepare the defence of their clients who have been in detention since they were arrested.
Among those listed as defendants in a 13-count treason charge marked FHC/ABJ/CR/206/2026 is the erstwhile governor of Bayelsa State—who also served as minister of state for petroleum resources under the late former president Muhammadu Buhari—Timipre Sylva.
The former governor, who is said to be currently at large after escaping from the country before the alleged coup plot was leaked, was arraigned in absentia.
The other defendants in the charge are retired Major General Mohammed Ibrahim Gana, retired Naval Captain Erasmus Ochegobia Victor, serving Police Inspector Ahmed Ibrahim, and three others—Zekeri Umoru, Bukar Kashim Goni, and Abdulkadir Sani.
It was alleged that the defendants had prior knowledge of a planned treasonable act involving one Colonel Mohammed Alhassan Ma’aji and others but failed to alert the appropriate authorities.
The FG maintained that they rendered assistance to Colonel Ma’aji, as evidenced by their refusal to disclose the coup plot to either the president or a peace officer.
Moreover, the defendants were accused of failing to take preventive steps, as they “did not use any reasonable endeavours to prevent the commission of the offence”.
Other allegations against them centred on terrorism-related offences under the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.
They were said to have conspired with one another to commit an act of terrorism in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Specifically, the serving police inspector, Ibrahim, and another defendant, Umoru, were accused of participating in meetings linked to terrorist activities.
The FG alleged that they acted “in a bid to further a political ideology which may seriously destabilise the constitutional structure of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”.
The defendants were further accused of providing support for terrorism.
The prosecution told the court that they knowingly and indirectly rendered support to facilitate acts of terror.
Tracing some of the transactions it said were linked to terrorism financing, the FG alleged that one of the defendants, Goni, “indirectly retained the aggregate sum of N50,000,000, which forms part of the proceeds of an unlawful act, to wit: terrorism financing”, while another defendant, Sani, allegedly retained N2 million from a similar source.
The charge also disclosed that Umoru had accepted a cash payment of N10,000,000 without going through a financial institution.
It was alleged that he also retained an additional N8.8 million suspected to be proceeds of terrorism financing.
Likewise, Inspector Ibrahim was accused of taking possession of N1 million linked to the same alleged scheme.
All financial-related counts in the charge were brought under the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.
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