The Office of the Attorney‑General of the Federation filed nigeria coup plot treason charges on Monday in the Federal High Court in Abuja. Timipre Sylva, a former governor and former minister of state for petroleum resources, was named in the charge sheet but listed as at large. The filing accuses six people of treason, terrorism and money laundering linked to terrorism financing and sets an arraignment for Wednesday, April 22 before Justice Joyce Abdulmalik.
Office of the Attorney‑General
The Office of the Attorney‑General of the Federation filed a 13-count charge, signed by Rotimi Oyedepo, Director of Public Prosecutions, that the prosecution says accuses the defendants of conspiring in 2025 "to levy war against the state to overpower the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria." The filing names retired Major General Mohammed Gana and retired Naval Captain Erasmus Victor among the six individuals and identifies one serving police inspector, Inspector Ahmed Ibrahim, as a defendant.
Defendants Named in Abuja
The charge sheet lists the six defendants as Mohammed Gana, Erasmus Victor, Ahmed Ibrahim, Zekeri Umoru, Bukar Goni and Abdulkadir Sani and alleges multiple offences including treason, terrorism, failure to disclose security intelligence, and money laundering linked to terrorism financing. The prosecution alleged that the defendants "conspired with one another to commit an act of terrorism in the Federal Republic of Nigeria" and that some "knowingly and indirectly rendered support" to facilitate acts of terror.
Timipre Sylva Named At Large
The prosecution alleged the defendants had prior knowledge of a planned treasonable act involving Colonel Mohammed Alhassan Ma'aji and others and that they "knowing that a treasonable act was intended to be committed, did not give information thereof with all reasonable despatch to either the President… or a peace officer." The charge further accuses some defendants of failing to use "any reasonable endeavours to prevent the commission of the offence." Bukar Kashim Goni is accused of retaining N50,000,000 said to be proceeds of terrorism financing, while Abdulkadir Sani is accused of retaining N2m from a similar source.
Inspector Ahmed Ibrahim and Zekeri Umoru are accused in the charge of attending meetings linked to the alleged plot "in a bid to further a political ideology that may seriously destabilise the constitutional structure of the Federal Republic of Nigeria," the prosecution said. The filing presents these allegations as grounds for the treason and terrorism counts and ties the money‑laundering allegations to alleged terrorism financing.
Rumours of an attempted coup first surfaced when the federal government cancelled a planned military parade for Nigeria's 65th Independence Anniversary in October 2025; the military at that time denied the coup suggestion. In January 2026 the military announced that 16 officers were to be tried before a military court for attempting to oust the president, and the federal charges in Abuja are filed separately from those military court proceedings.
Timipre Sylva is the named individual in this filing who is currently at large; his inclusion in the federal charge sheet connects a prominent former governor and former minister to the allegations in a way that shifts the case from internal military discipline toward a public federal prosecution. The prosecution frames the arraignment and the 13-count charge as the next stage in moving these allegations into the civil judicial system.
The defendants are scheduled to be arraigned on Wednesday, April 22 before Justice Joyce Abdulmalik in the Federal High Court in Abuja, and that court appearance is the immediate next confirmed judicial step in the case.
