The Federal Government has charged a retired Major General, a retired Naval Captain, a serving police inspector, and three other people in the Federal High Court in Abuja with plotting a coup and committing acts of terrorism.
The people who are accused of plotting a coup will appear in front of Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court in Abuja tomorrow, April 22.
The people who are being charged are Major General Mohammed Ibrahim Gana (rtd), Captain (NN) Erasmus Ochegobia Victor (rtd), Inspector Ahmed Ibrahim, Zekeri Umoru, Bukar Kashim Goni, and Abdulkadir Sani.
Timipre Sylva, the former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, is also named as a defendant but is said to be on the run.
The charge, which was filed by the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and signed by the Director of Public Prosecutions of the Federation, Rotimi Oyedepo, SAN, says that the defendants committed crimes like treason, terrorism, failing to share security intelligence, and money laundering that is linked to funding terrorism.
The main point of the case is that the defendants planned to weaken the Nigerian state in 2025.
The charge says they “conspired with one another to levy war against the state to overawe the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.” This is a crime under Section 37(2) of the Criminal Code.
The prosecution also said that the defendants knew about a planned act of treason involving Colonel Mohammed Alhassan Ma’aji and others before it happened but didn’t tell the police.
The charge said that they “knew that and intended to commit treason, but did not give the information to the President or a Peace Officer as soon as possible.”
In another count, the defendants were accused of not taking steps to stop the crime from happening because they “did not use any reasonable efforts to prevent the commission of the offence.”
The defendants are being charged with terrorism-related crimes under the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, in addition to treason.
The charge said that they “conspired with one another to commit an act of terrorism in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
Specifically, Inspector Ahmed Ibrahim and Zekeri Umoru are said to have been at meetings related to terrorist activities.
The prosecutors say they did this “in a bid to further a political ideology which may seriously destabilise the constitutional structure of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
The charge also said that the defendants supported terrorism by “knowingly and indirectly rendering support” to make acts of terror easier to carry out.
The prosecution also said that the defendants “had information that would have been very helpful in stopping the act of terrorism but did not give it to the right agency as soon as possible.”
The case also looked into financial transactions that were said to be connected to terrorism financing, with several defendants accused of handling money made from illegal activities.
Bukar Kashim Goni is said to have “indirectly retained the aggregate sum of N50,000,000, which forms part of the proceeds of an unlawful act, to wit: terrorism financing,” while Abdulkadir Sani is said to have kept N2 million from a similar source.
The charge says that Zekeri Umoru “accepted a cash payment of N10,000,000 without going through a financial institution.” He also kept an extra N8.8 million that was thought to be money used to fund terrorism.
It was also said that Inspector Ahmed Ibrahim took N1 million that was linked to the same scheme.
The Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, covered all of the counts that had to do with money.
The 13-count charge describes what prosecutors say is a coordinated network of security personnel, civilians, and a politically exposed person who are all allegedly involved in activities that threaten national security.
