A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has dismissed objections by alleged coup plotters to the admissibility of statements and video recordings made during their interrogation by the military over an alleged plot to overthrow the government of President Bola Tinubu.
When the case came up on Thursday, the trial judge, Justice Joyce Abdulmalik, upheld the Federal Government’s submission that the statements and video recordings were voluntarily made by the defendants during military interrogation.
In a ruling following a trial-within-trial conducted to determine the voluntariness of the defendants’ statements, Justice Abdulmalik held that there was no evidence that the statements and video recordings were obtained under duress.
She described the defendants’ allegations of duress as an afterthought and unbelievable in all ramifications.
The judge specifically dismissed claims of torture, inducement and the use of force by the military to obtain the defendants’ confessional statements and video recordings. She subsequently admitted the statements and recordings as exhibits against the defendants.
The alleged coup plotters are retired Major General Mohammed Gana, retired Navy Captain Erasmus Victor, Inspector Ahmed Ibrahim, Zekeri Umoru, Bukar Goni and Abdulkadir Sani, listed as the first to sixth defendants, respectively.
The Federal Government, through the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), arraigned the six defendants on April 22 on a 13-count charge marked FHC/ABJ/CR/206/2026, filed on April 20 by the Director of Public Prosecutions of the Federation (DPPF), Mr Rotimi Oyedepo, SAN.
The defendants were accused of offences bordering on treason, terrorism, failure to disclose security intelligence and money laundering linked to terrorism financing.
Justice Abdulmalik had, on May 11, ordered a trial-within-trial after defence lawyers objected to the admissibility of the statements and video recordings the prosecution sought to tender, arguing that they were not made voluntarily. The objection followed the prosecution’s presentation of four witnesses.
The fourth prosecution witness (PW-4), an army officer identified by the codename “AAA”, had earlier tendered video recordings of the defendants’ interrogations before the trial-within-trial commenced.
Following Thursday’s ruling, the judge fixed December 7 and 10 for the continuation of the trial.