PREMIUM TIMES to bring rare, intriguing details of 2025 alleged coup plot against Tinubu administration

In September last year, an alleged failed plot to topple President Bola Tinubu’s administration unsettled the Nigerian government while officials made spirited efforts to downplay or even dismiss outrightly the conspiracy that reportedly forced a scaled-down 1 October 2025 Independence celebration.

The plot, now subject of ongoing criminal proceedings in both the military and regular courts with serving and retired military officers as well as civilians facing trial, has received wide media coverage.

Many have responded in shock, particularly those who believed coups belonged to the past decades of the dark era of military rule which Nigeria broke from in 1999.

Yet, media coverage up till now has only scratched the surface of the alleged plot compared to what PREMIUM TIMES now knows about the case.

This newspaper has obtained tons of confidential files the authorities have kept on the alleged coup since when the government learnt of it in September last year.

Together, the files offer rare details of the alleged coup, including its conception by the promoters, human recruitment, fund raising, arms mobilisation, logistics arrangement, attack plans, and strikingly, the secret conversations that lasted for months between the alleged conspirators.

The documents, comprising thousands of pages of investigation records, witness statements and other materials assembled by security agencies with prosecution in mind, provide an unprecedented glimpse into one of the most serious direct threats against the Nigerian government in decades.

The records identify dozens of serving and retired military officers, a police officer, Islamic clerics, politicians, businessmen and civilians who were questioned over their alleged involvement in the failed plot.

At the centre of the investigation is Colonel Mohammed Ma’aji, an officer of the Defence Space Administration, whom investigators identified as one of the principal masterminds and coordinators of the alleged conspiracy.

According to investigators, the alleged plot involved plans to violently remove the Tinubu administration and replace it with a new government after targeting key political and military leaders.

PREMIUM TIMES previously reported that investigators alleged that President Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shettima, Senate President Godswill Akpabio, Speaker of the House of Representatives Abbas Tajudeen, service chiefs and commanders of strategic military formations were among those allegedly marked for assassination.

The investigation also uncovered what security agencies described as a sophisticated network stretching across military formations, the Presidential Villa and civilian circles, with different individuals allegedly assigned responsibilities ranging from logistics and funding to reconnaissance, propaganda and recruitment.

The federal government has since arraigned six men, including retired military officers and a police officer before the Federal High Court in Abuja on charges of treason, terrorism and money laundering charges, while 36 serving military personnel are facing separate proceedings before a General Court Martial.

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Over the coming days, PREMIUM TIMES will bring you fresh details, including what investigators believe to be the planned modus operandi of the alleged network and the accounts given by key suspects, some of which read like extracts of a movie script.

The series offers more: a trail of the delicate interplay of human aspirations and weaknesses. You will gain powerful insights into how the whole episode was coloured and shaped by thirst for power, craving for revenge, transactional spirituality, ignorance, folly, greed, blind desperation, loyalty, friendship, frustrations, lack, delusion, betrayal and welfare gaps in Nigeria’s military service.

Look forward to the series of yet-untold stories of the coup debacle starting Saturday.