Six men pleaded not guilty to treason and terrorism charges over a botched coup plot, as the first prosecutions for the alleged 2025 coup attempt get underway.

The government had initially denied the existence of the alleged coup attempt before announcing in January that it had foiled a plan to overthrow the government led by President Bola Tinubu.

Had it been successful, the coup would have brought an end to a quarter-century of democracy in Africa’s most populous country.

On Tuesday, the government announced six civilians charged in the plot at the Federal High Court in Abuja, including a retired major general. The military is also set to try several officers, in proceedings that is yet to commence.

The six accused, in their first court appearance, pleaded not guilty.

The charges named retired major general Mohammed Ibrahim Gana, retired captain Erasmus Ochegobia Victor, Ahmed Ibrahim, Zekeri Umoru, Bukar Kashim Goni and Abdulkadir Sani. They are accused of conspiring with one another to levy war against the State to overawe the President of the Federal Republic.” 

The six were also accused of knowing that Colonel Mohammed Alhassan Ma’aji and others intended to commit treason and did not alert authorities.

Ma’aji has been named in previous Nigerian press reports as the coup mastermind.

The defendants are also accused of conspiring with one another to commit an act of terrorism and of indirectly but knowingly rendering support to Ma’aji and others to commit an act of terrorism.

Also named in the documents as allegedly acting alongside the accused was Timipre Sylva- still at large, a Nigerian politician who served as the minister of state for Petroleum Resources from 2019 to 2023 and as governor of Bayelsa State from 2007 to 2012. He has previously denied alleged connections to the coup plot.

The trial will continue on 27 April.