A RETIRED major general and a serving police inspector are among six people charged with terrorism and treason in Nigeria over an alleged plot to overthrow President Bola Tinubu, according to reports.

The six were all in custody. A seventh suspect, former Bayelsa state governor Timpre Sylva, is accused of helping to conceal the plot and is still at large.

In the 13-count charge sheet, authorities said suspects “conspired with one another to wage war against the state to overthrow the president of the Federal Republic.”

The Nigerian government first said it had foiled a coup attempt in January, when it announced that several military officers would stand trial. 

They were part of a group of 16 military officers arrested in 2025 over what military authorities described as “acts of indiscipline and breaches of service regulations,” which fuelled rumours of a coup plot that the government initially denied.

Africa’s most populous nation experienced five coups in the 20th century but has not seen one since it transitioned to democracy in 1999.

The alleged coup plot comes on the heels of a surge in coups and attempted coups in west and central Africa, the latest in Benin and Guinea-Bissau late last year.