Soldiers accused of a botched plot to overthrow Nigerian President Bola Tinubu last year are set to be court-martialled, according to a statement by the country’s military hierarchy seen by APA on Tuesday.
Charged with indiscipline, insubordination and going against service regulations, some of the 16 alleged coup plotters identified as officers in the Nigerian military will face a special judicial panel made up of army officers.
The announced court martial comes as the Nigerian military finally accepted reports late last year suggesting a foiled coup attempt, which it had denied at the time.
The Nigerian military hierarchy had repeatedly denied coup plot rumours in the recent past despite suggestions of discontent within the army and overall public disenchantment with the Tinubu government.
President Tinubu had cancelled a parade which would have been part of independence anniversary celebrations on 1 October 2025 and coincided with the dismissal of 16 military officers, whose ranks ranged from captain to brigadier general.
Under Nigerian law, the plotters could be sentenced to death if found guilty.
Since independence in 1960 Nigeria had been flirting with military coups with sometimes devastating consequences but has enjoyed an uninterrupted spell of democratic political changeovers since 1999 when Africa’s most populous country returned to democracy.
The last successful military overthrow happened in 1993 following a controversial democratic election which would have seen businessman Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola assume the presidency.
Then military junta led by General Ibrahim Babangida had declared the June 12, 1993 elections null and void despite reports suggesting that Abiola had won by at least 58 percent of the vote.
Shortly afterwards Gen Babangida had relinquished power to a civilian caretaker administration but General Sani Abacha seized power and ruled with an iron fist until his unexpected death in June 1998. Abiola who was under detention during this period also died weeks later.
Senior army officials have pledged to conduct a free and fair trial of the suspects whose alleged plot to unconstitutionally remove President Tinubu is seen as an act that flies in the face of the Nigerian military’s standing ethics and professional standards.
Reports of an abortive coup in Nigeria cme amid a season of military takeovers in West Africa where juntas still rule Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. Under the aegis of the West African regional grouping Ecowas, Nigeria had helped quell a coup in neighbouring Benin last December, underlining the Tinubu administration’s aversion to unconstitutional change of government in the region and elsewhere in Africa.
WN/as/APA