Court admits FG’s evidence against putschists, fixes Dec 7 for trial

Rejects claims of coercion

Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed the objections of the alleged coup plotters to the admission of their statements and video recordings made to the military during their interrogation for allegedly plotting to violently overthrow President Bola Tinubu’s government.

The judge yesterday upheld the submission of the Federal Government that the statements and video recordings were voluntarily made by the defendants during interrogation by the military.

In a ruling on trial within trial conducted by the court to ascertain the genuineness of the plotters’ allegations, Justice Abdulmalik held that there was no iota of evidence that the statements and video recordings were made under duress.

Justice Abdulmalik said that the allegations of duress raised by the defendants were an afterthought and unbelievable in all ramifications.

Specifically, the judge dismissed the allegations of torture, inducement and the employment of force by the military to make them make the confessional statements and video recordings.

She admitted the statements and video recordings as exhibits against the defendants while dismissing their claims of being made under duress.

The alleged coup plotters are retired Major General Mohammed Gana, retired Navy Capt. Erasmus Victor, Insp. Ahmed Ibrahim, Zekeri Umoru, Bukar Goni and Abdulkadir Sani as 1st to 6th defendants respectively.

The Federal Government, through the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), had, on April 22, arraigned the six defendants on a 13-count charge.

The charge, marked FHC/ABJ/CR/206/2026, was filed on April 20 by the Director of Public Prosecutions of the Federation, Rotimi Oyedepo, SAN.

The defendants were accused of offences ranging from treason and terrorism to failure to disclose security intelligence and money laundering linked to terrorism financing.

Justice Abdulmalik had, on May 11, ordered the trial-within-trial after defence lawyers objected to the admissibility of the statements and video recordings the prosecution sought to tender.

They argued that the statements were not made voluntarily and filed an objection after the prosecution had called four witnesses.

The 4th prosecution witness (PW-4), an army officer identified by the codename “AAA” had tendered video recordings of the defendants’ interrogations before the trial-within-trial began.

Justice Abdulmalik admitted the statements of the accused persons and the video recordings against the defendants.

She subsequently fixed December 7 and 10 for continuation of the trial.