Alleged coup plotters to appear in court Dec 7

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, on Thursday fixed December 7, 2026 for the trial of alleged six coup plotters who were arrested by the security operatives following the botched exercise.

The court fixed the date after it dismissed the objections of the alleged coup plotters against the admission of their statements and video recordings made to the military during their interrogation.

Daily Trust reports that they were interrogated by both the military and the DSS for allegedly plotting to violently overthrow the President Bola Tinubu-led government.

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The alleged coup plotters are retired Major General Mohammed Gana, retired Navy Capt. Erasmus Victor, Insp Ahmed Ibrahim, Zekeri Umoru, Bukar Goni and Abdulkadir Sani as 1st to 6th defendants respectively.

The Federal Government, through the Office of the Attorney-General of Federation (AGF), had on April 22 arraigned the six defendants on a 13-count charge.

The charge, marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/206/2026, was filed on April 20 by the Director, Public Prosecutions of the Federation, Rotimi Oyedepo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria.

The defendants were accused of offences ranging from treason and terrorism to failure to disclose security intelligence and money laundering linked to terrorism financing.

Justice Abdulmalik had, on May 11, ordered the trial-within-trial after defence lawyers objected to the admissibility of the statements and video recordings the prosecution sought to tender.

They argued that the statements were not made voluntarily and filed an objection after the prosecution had called four witnesses.

The 4th prosecution witness (PW-4), an army officer identified by the codename “AAA” had tendered video recordings of the defendants’ interrogations before the trial-within-trial began.

Justice Abdulmalik admitted the statements of the accused persons and the video recordings against the defendants.

During their arraignment in April, the six accused persons denied the 13-count treason charges brought against them by the federal government, arguing that they were not involved in what they were accused of.

At the resumed hearing on Thursday, Justice Joyce Abdulmalik upheld the submission of the federal government that the statements and video recordings were voluntarily made by the defendants during interrogation by the military.

In a ruling on trial-within-trial conducted by the Court to ascertain the genuineness of the plotters allegations, the judge held that there was no iota of evidence that the statements and video recordings were done under duress.

Justice Abdulmalik said that the allegations of duress raised by the defendants were afterthought and unbelievable in all ramifications.

Specifically, the judge dismissed the allegations of torture, inducement and employment of force by the military to make them make the confessional statements and video recordings.

She admitted the statements and video recordings as exhibits against the defendants while dismissing their claims of being made under duress.

She subsequently fixed December 7 and 10 for continuation of trial.