EXCLUSIVE: What longtime allies reveal about alleged coup leader’s life that shattered their confidence

A Nigerian Army officer has told investigators how he lost confidence in the prospect of the alleged 2025 coup plot, saying he was discouraged by the alleged mastermind’s promiscuity and over-reliance on traditional spiritualists and Islamic clerics.

The accounts are contained in the extrajudicial statement investigators obtained from Shamsuddeen Bappah, a serving lieutenant colonel and officer of the Nigerian Army Signals Corps.

The statement is among over 7,400 pages of documents investigators gathered for the prosecution of the suspects linked to the alleged plot at the General Court Martial convened by the military, and the Federal High Court in Abuja.

The piles of confidential files contain the statements of several other suspects, bank records, secret notes, documentary evidence of the alleged conspirators’ secret conversations, and other exhibits assembled by investigators.

PREMIUM TIMES has reviewed the treasure trove of documents obtained exclusively to report for the first time an extensive, in-depth series of untold stories about last year’s failed putsch against the President Bola Tinubu administration.

Mr Bappah, a 41-year-old officer from Bauchi State and a member of the 56 Regular Course of the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), opened up on insider knowledge regarding the alleged coup when investigators interrogated him over his alleged role in it.

According to investigators, Mr Bappah admitted attending meetings where the alleged coup was discussed and receiving money from Mohammed Ma’aji, a colonel in the Nigerian Army, whom investigators identified as one of the central figures in the alleged plot.

The investigation

Security agencies launched the probe after receiving intelligence in September 2025 that serving and retired military officers, alongside some civilians, were allegedly planning a violent takeover of government.

PREMIUM TIMES previously reported that investigators believed the alleged conspirators planned to assassinate President Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shettima, Senate President Godswill Akpabio, Speaker Tajudeen Abbas and several senior military commanders before seizing power.

Investigators also believed different members of the network were assigned responsibilities ranging from logistics and funding to propaganda, reconnaissance visits and military operations. PREMIUM TIMES has recently detailed in one part of the series of indepth, exclusive reporting on the alleged coup the key targets and the ringleaders assigned to oversee the operations there.

According to Mr Bappah’s statement, he was among those expected to play an operational role. This newspaper revealed that he was assigned to seize and hold 102 Battalion, Zuma, Niger State.

‘Something will happen and the military will take over’

Mr Bappah told investigators that he had known Mr Ma’aji since they were cadets at the Nigerian Defence Academy, where the senior officer later became his instructor and Battalion Adjutant.

According to him, discussions about changing the government did not begin overnight.

Instead, he said the conversations stretched over several years.

“We always discussed the situation of the country and the way things are going,” he said.

“So he told me that one thing that can solve it is to change the government, and we have been discussing it for like four to five years.”

He alleged that during a meeting at Command Guest House in Kaduna around 2022 or 2023, Mr Ma’aji became more direct.

“He told me that something will happen and the military will take over.”

‘I started having doubts’

Despite his involvement in the meetings, Mr Bappah said his confidence in Mr Ma’aji gradually began to fade.

The turning point, according to him, had nothing to do with military planning.

Instead, he said he became disturbed by what he considered Colonel Ma’aji’s personal conduct.

“I started having doubts when I saw his consistency on the issue of carrying women becoming too much, even in Abuja where his wife is,” he told investigators.

“I felt that he’s not being loyal to his family.”

According to Mr Bappah, those concerns soon extended beyond Colonel Ma’aji’s private life.

“I started wondering if he can handle Nigeria at large without betrayers,” he said.

The lieutenant colonel suggested that a person he believed could not remain faithful within his own household might also struggle to command loyalty while leading a country.

‘He would never allow anyone treat his own daughter that way’

Mr Bappah went further, telling investigators that some of Colonel Ma’aji’s interactions with women deeply unsettled him.

He stated that Mr Ma’aji related with women in a manner he would never have allowed his children to be treated.

He continued: “Col Ma’aji has a mature daughter, but will never for once bring her… for anybody to use.”

According to him, those experiences created what he described as “negative thoughts” about Colonel Ma’aji’s judgement and character.

He added that he feared such behaviour could eventually undermine whatever plans the group had.

“I also felt that due to his too much relationship with women, even for success, it could lead to failure,” he said.

Mr Bappah said he feared Colonel Ma’aji’s relationships with women could eventually compromise the alleged operation if they became public.

“They may start bringing out some pictures or even videos of the relationship to castigate him, which eventually affected all of us.”

He said another reason he lost confidence in the alleged plot was Colonel Ma’aji’s patronage of traditional spiritualists and Islamic clerics.

Another issue, according to Mr Bappah was Mr Ma’aji’is “involvement of diabolic people he calls Malams.” “I never believed in such,” he said.

Despite those growing reservations, Mr Bappah told investigators that he continued attending meetings and was eventually assigned operational responsibilities.

Another insider expresses doubts

Mr Bappah was not the only ally of the alleged coup mastermind that later came to doubt the prospect of the plot.

An earlier part of the PREMIUM TIMES series of exclusive reporting on the coup captured a Nigerian Navy lieutenant commander Bayawo Abdullahi’s doubt about Mr Ma’aji’s capacity to stage the coup.

In the statement he wrote during interrogation, Mr Abdullahi, a 38-year-old officer from Kogi State, attributed his doubt about the feasibility of the coup to Mr Ma’aji’s inability to pull through a logistics arrangement for its execution.

The coup supporter turned sceptic, who bought into the plot apparently out of bitterness of losing promotional bid twice, said he eventually tagged Mr Ma’aji a joker and stopped responding to his frequent messages.

He said his only regret was that he did not report the plan, and that he did not know who to report to.

“I was not really into his plans and what and how he intends to do that,” he said.

But at the time he claimed he had given up on the coup plot, he sent a Whatsapp message to Mr Ma’aji mocking President  Tinubu after the 2025 Independence Day parade was cancelled. Unknown to him, the authorities had gotten wind of the plot and arrested Mr Ma’aji on the same day he sent the message.

He would later tell interrogators that he sent the message out of ignorance. The said message expressed enthusiasm that Mr Tinubu was forced to cancel the Independence Day parade out of fear.

“I can state categorically that I was not aware that the October 1 parade was to be the execution date,” Mr Abdullahi added. “Col Maaji did not inform me. That probably would have been discussed during their subsequent meetings, which I did not attend.”

Preparing for the takeover

As the discussions progressed before the plot hit the wall, Mr Bappah claimed he was eventually given specific responsibilities.

According to him, Colonel Ma’aji informed him that Colonel M.M. Adamu would coordinate the blocking of major entry routes into Abuja through Gwagwalada, Suleja and Keffi while deploying communication equipment.

His own responsibility, he said, would begin immediately after power had been seized.

“I was assigned that on the day of the execution of the plan to make arrests in Abuja,” he told investigators.

He further alleged that Colonel Ma’aji instructed him to begin preparing a speech that would be delivered after the takeover.

“He suggested that arrangements to block battalions via road will be done by Col Adamu so I should prepare to read a speech,” Mr Bappah stated.

“He even told me to use a write-up to conduct rehearsals while I was in Lagos.”

Accounts of other suspects suggested that Mr Bappah was assigned to seize and hold 102 Battalion, Zuma, Niger State.

A major, Abdulkarim Ibrahim, told interrogators that although Mr Bappah was initially expected to make the nationwide broadcast announcing the takeover, that responsibility was later transferred to him. 

Mr Ibrahim said he was initially assigned to secure the Armed Forces Headquarters complex before his role was changed to Radio House in Abuja, where he was expected to deliver the takeover speech.

Meetings and money

According to Mr Bappah, planning meetings frequently took place at Colonel Ma’aji’s residence in Army Housing, Lokogoma, Abuja.

He identified participants as including Major A.J. Ibrahim, Major Iliyasu, Major M.A. Usman, Lieutenant Felix and Captain Bello. PREMIUM TIMES has detailed in an earlier installment of the coup reporting series the assigned roles of these individuals in the alleged conspiracy.

He also admitted receiving N1.5 million to repair his official Toyota Hilux after informing Colonel Ma’aji that its engine had failed.

“He asked me if I have a vehicle in the unit and I told him yes, but the engine has knocked.”

According to Mr Bappah, the vehicle was to be repaired because Lieutenant Felix would require it “for assignment if anything happens.”

He further admitted receiving another N5 million into his Zenith Bank account.

According to him, Colonel Ma’aji told him to “take care of yourself and anything you want.”

Why he never reported

Although Mr Bappah admitted that he knew discussions about overthrowing the government were taking place, he told investigators that he never informed his superiors.

“I knew the coup plot was illegal but I didn’t know it was treason,” he said.

Asked why he remained silent, he replied:

“I didn’t report because I was afraid of him noticing and doing me harm if he discovered.”

He also admitted deliberately switching off his telephone after suspecting that Colonel Ma’aji and Lieutenant Felix had been arrested because he wanted to avoid being traced by investigators.

Mr Bappah’s statement is one of several investigation records obtained by PREMIUM TIMES detailing the accounts given by serving military officers, civilians and other suspects during interrogations following the alleged coup plot.

Many of the suspects are now facing trial at either the General Court Martial or the Federal High Court in Abuja. Those facing prosecution before the Federal High Court have challenged the admissibility of their extrajudicial statements.

Ma’aji, the man who put three-decade career on the line to rally for coup

Mr Ma’aji, with service number N/10668, was an infantry officer whose military career spanned three decades.

The Army officer, who was born on 1 March 1976, hails from Nupe from Edati Local Government Area of Niger State, North-central Nigeria.

He joined the Nigerian Army as a member of the 47 Regular Course of the Nigerian Defence Academy.

He completed his military training in 2000 and rose through the ranks, becoming a lieutenant colonel in 2013 and a full colonel in 2017.

Mr Ma’aji served in several operational roles.

Mr Ma’aji built much of his operational experience in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta, which later became central to his professional and political networks.

He served under Operation Crocodile Smile II in 2017, a major Nigerian Army exercise designed to address militancy, oil theft and insecurity in the Niger Delta and parts of the South-west.

At the time of his arrest in September 2025, he was the Commanding Officer of the 19 Battalion in Okitipupa, Ondo State.

We have yet to find any record showing Mr Ma’aji has had the opportunity to respond to the remarks about his personal life. As the trial before the court martial unfolds in camera, he will perhaps have the chance to respond to the claims of his former allies.

Read the teaser story for the PREMIUM TIMES series of exclusive reports on the failed coup plot here, and subsequent exposés here, here, here, here, here, and here.