A retired naval captain facing coup charges over last year’s alleged plot to overthrow President Bola Tinubu’s administration has told investigators that he was aware of the plot but repeatedly advised the suspected mastermind, Mohammed Ma’aji, a Nigerian Army colonel, against the plan.
The account is contained in investigation records obtained exclusively by PREMIUM TIMES.
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The records include the statement of Erasmus Victor, who is one of the six defendants currently facing trial arising from the alleged coup plot before the Federal High Court in Abuja.
In the statement, Mr Victor, who switched to politics after his military service, acknowledged discussing the alleged plot with Mr Ma’aji on several occasions, communicating with him through an encrypted messaging application and even joking about government appointments if the coup succeeded.
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Mr Victor, a former local government chairman in Rivers State, discussed how the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Nyesom Wike, who is a former Rivers State governor, and other individuals were suggested as potential financiers during the coup leader’s alleged scramble to find sponsors.
However, he insisted that although he failed to alert security agencies, he never supported the alleged conspiracy and only pretended to assist Mr Ma’aji while attempting to persuade him to abandon the plan.
The alleged coup investigation
Mr Victor is facing prosecution alongside five others, including retired military officers, over the alleged 2025 conspiracy to overthrow President Tinubu’s administration.
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The case followed months of investigations by security agencies after the alleged plot was busted in September 2025.
PREMIUM TIMES had earlier reported that investigators believe the alleged conspirators planned to assassinate President Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shettima, Senate President Godswill Akpabio, Speaker of the House of Representatives Tajudeen Abbas, service chiefs and other senior government officials before seizing power.
Investigators also allege that members of the network were assigned different responsibilities, including strategic military assignments, reconnaissance, recruiting financiers, spiritual consultation, logistics and propaganda.
‘He was devastated after losing promotion’
In his statement, Mr Victor traced his relationship with Mr Ma’aji back several years, long before investigators alleged the colonel became involved in planning the alleged coup.
According to the retired naval officer, they first worked together at the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), where he served as commanding officer of the Burma Battalion while Mr Ma’aji was his adjutant.
He said their relationship continued after they left the academy.
According to Mr Victor, everything changed after Mr Ma’aji failed to secure promotion around 2023.
“He was very devastated,” Mr Victor told investigators.
He said he telephoned Mr Ma’aji to console him, explaining that he had experienced similar disappointment during his own military career before eventually overcoming it.
Mr Victor said he advised him to begin preparing for retirement rather than allowing the setback to consume him.
According to his statement, the colonel rejected the advice. Instead, he allegedly declared that he was prepared to do “anything necessary,” even if it cost him his life.
Mr Victor said he immediately understood the remark to mean that Mr Ma’aji intended to organise a coup against the government.
Searching for sponsors
Mr Victor told investigators that he repeatedly urged Mr Ma’aji to abandon the idea.
According to him, the colonel later informed him that he needed wealthy sponsors who could finance the operation.
Fifty-year-old Mr Ma’aji who hails from Bida in Niger State allegedly mentioned several influential individuals and asked Mr Victor to approach them on his behalf.
Among those mentioned, he said, was the FCT Minister, Mr Wike.
Mr Victor claimed he told the colonel that Mr Wike was the only person on the list he knew personally and suggested that Mr Ma’aji should contact him directly if he wished.
Mr Victor served as the chairman of the Ogu/Bolo Local Government Area of Rivers State between 2018 and 2021 while Mr Wike was the governor.
“I have been a local government chairman for Ogu/Bolo LGA under Nyesom Wike, and I left office in 2021,” he wrote. “He suggested I bring Nyesom Wike into the plan in order to seek funds from him.”
He maintained that he was “not under compulsion to tell Col Maaji I was going to get him sponsors.”
He added that he never approached any of the individuals, including Mr Wike.
Instead, he simply informed Mr Ma’aji that he had been unable to secure any sponsorship.
‘I thought it was a scam’
According to Mr Victor, his doubts about the alleged plan increased after Mr Ma’aji again sought financial backing following another failed promotion exercise.
He said he questioned whether the colonel was genuinely planning a coup or merely attempting to defraud wealthy individuals.
“I suspected it was 419,” he told investigators.
He explained that he believed anyone who voluntarily contributed money to finance a coup would be unable to report being defrauded if the funds disappeared.
For that reason, he said, he never attempted to source sponsors despite repeatedly assuring Mr Ma’aji that he would make enquiries.
Whenever the colonel followed up, Mr Victor said he simply replied that the supposed sponsors had declined to participate.
Mr Victor was not the only ally who expressed doubts to interrogators about Mr Ma’aji’s capacity to pull the coup through and the prospect of the entire plot.
An earlier part of the PREMIUM TIMES’ series of exclusive reporting on the alleged coup captured a Nigerian Navy lieutenant commander Bayawo Abdullahi’s doubts about Mr Ma’aji’s capacity to raise sufficient funds and handle the logistics required for the operation.
Similarly, Shamsuddeen Bappah, a serving lieutenant colonel and officer of the Nigerian Army Signals Corps, said during interrogation that he was discouraged by Mr Ma’aji’s alleged promiscuity and over-reliance on traditional spiritualists and Islamic clerics.
Mr Victor said he and Mr Bappah also discussed the alleged plot.
Secure communications
The investigation records also show that Mr Victor admitted communicating with Mr Ma’aji through Zangi, an encrypted messaging application increasingly used for private conversations.
He explained that the application was recommended by Mr Ma’aji because it offered more secure communication than conventional telephone calls.
According to Mr Victor, he downloaded the application solely to communicate with Mr Ma’aji and another officer, Mr Bappah.
PREMIUM TIMES reported that Mr Bappah was allegedly assigned to seize and hold 102 Battalion, Zuma, Niger State, during the planned takeover. Another report by this newspaper showed that the lieutenant colonel received N5 million on 27 September 2025 from the funds allegedly pooled for the planned operation.
Mr Victor also explained the origin of one of the nicknames investigators found during their analysis of electronic communications.
According to him, he had once nicknamed Mr Ma’aji “Asymmetric Officer” when the latter was posted to the North-east, while Mr Ma’aji jokingly referred to him as “Maritime Asymetrician.”
Discussion about positions after the coup
Investigators also questioned Mr Victor about conversations regarding appointments in a proposed post-coup government.
According to his statement, one such discussion took place during a meeting attended by Mr Ma’aji and Colonel M.M. Adamu.
During the conversation, Mr Ma’aji allegedly asked what position he would like if the operation succeeded.
Mr Victor claimed he jokingly reminded him that he had already promised to appoint him Chief of Staff to the President.
Instead, he said, Mr Ma’aji responded that he would make him a minister.
Discussion with officer Bappah
Mr Victor also described conversations with Mr Bappah, the colonel whom he identified as his former cadet at the Nigerian Defence Academy.
According to him, the officer frequently complained about poor salaries and frustration with conditions in the military.
During one visit to Lagos, Mr Victor said Mr Bappah openly informed him that he and Mr Ma’aji were planning to overthrow the government.
Despite hearing those claims, Mr Victor admitted he never alerted security agencies.
The N2 billion budget
One of the more striking revelations in Mr Victor’s statement concerns the amount of money allegedly required to execute the operation.
According to him, Mr Ma’aji disclosed that he needed about N2 billion to fund the planned coup.
Mr Victor claimed he warned the colonel that modern communication systems would make such an operation extremely difficult to conceal.
He told investigators he believed those communication challenges alone would cause the operation to fail.
When Mr Ma’aji later informed him that he had independently secured funding, Mr Victor admitted replying simply, “Good.”
Revolutionary content
Investigators also questioned Mr Victor about online material recovered during the investigation.
He admitted forwarding what investigators described as revolutionary-themed social media content to Mr Ma’aji through WhatsApp.
Although he insisted he consistently advised the colonel against taking any action, he acknowledged that he could not justify why he shared such material.
‘Why I never reported’
Throughout his statement, Mr Victor repeatedly admitted that he never informed security agencies despite becoming aware of the alleged conspiracy.
He claimed he attempted to reach the then-Rivers State Sole Administrator after becoming increasingly concerned but was unable to get through because his calls were not answered. Ibok-Ete Ibas, a retired vice-admiral of the Nigerian Navy, served as the sole administrator of Rivers State for six months, from March to September 2025, following the emergency rule President Tinubu imposed on the state.
Mr Victor also admitted that despite belonging to several military WhatsApp groups, including one for his coursemates, he never informed any of them about the alleged plot.
“I did not report the plans, and I am sorry,” he told investigators.
Concern after arrests
Mr Victor further told investigators that he became worried during Nigeria’s Independence Day celebrations after he suddenly lost contact with Mr Ma’aji.
Repeated attempts to reach the officer by telephone were unsuccessful. It turned out that Mr Ma’aji had been arrested on 29 September.
Mr Victor said he also tried contacting Mr Bappah without success.
Eventually, he telephoned Colonel S.M. Gana through WhatsApp and learnt that Mr Ma’aji had been arrested.
According to his statement, he immediately suggested moving their conversation from WhatsApp to the encrypted Zangi application because he wanted a more secure means of discussing the arrest and obtaining additional information.
Denials
The defendants facing charges stemming from the alleged coup have maintained their innocence as they pleaded not guilty to all the counts brought against them either before the General Court Martial or the Federal High Court in Abuja.
Mr Victor and his co-defendants before the Federal High Court in Abuja have opposed the admissibility of their extrajudicial statements alongside the video clips capturing their interrogation sessions during detention. They alleged that the materials were obtained in disregard for due process of law. The prosecution has urged the court to reject their objection and admit the materials as exhibits. The judge has yet to rule.
Mr Sylva, the alleged principal financier of the plot, has denied involvement.
The former minister of state for petroleum resources who stoutly maintained his innocence, described the alleged plot as a rumour.
“Chief Timipre Sylva, CON, has no involvement whatsoever — either in planning or logistics — with any such plot. He is a thoroughbred democrat whose political journey has been defined by faith in democratic processes and institutions,” his spokesperson wrote on Mr Sylva’s behalf in a statement issued after security forces raided his house in Abuja in October last year.
Mr Sylva, who said at the time that he was in the UK with his wife and scheduled to travel to Malaysia, is not known to have returned to the country yet.
Meanwhile, five persons linked to him are facing trial for allegedly concealing his whereabouts.
The government has also obtained an order for an interim forfeiture of nine properties linked to him in choice areas of Abuja.
All pretrial claims will still undergo judicial scrutiny during the ongoing trials to determine their truthfulness.
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