Details have begun to emerge about the identities of at least 16 of an unknown number of Nigerian military officers currently being detained over an alleged coup plot.
Premium Times quoted sources familiar with the matter that fourteen of the 16 officers are from the Nigerian Army, while the remaining two belong to the Navy and the Air Force.
According to the report, 15 of the 16 detained officers are from north central, northeast and northwest geopolitical zones. The only exception is the most junior among them—a lieutenant from the southwest.
Among the Army officers are a brigadier general, a colonel, four lieutenant colonels, five majors, two captains, and a lieutenant. The two others include a Lieutenant Commander from the Navy (the naval equivalent of a Major in the Army) and a Squadron Leader from the Air Force (also equivalent to a Major).
Further details provided by sources indicate that 12 of the 14 Army officers are from the Infantry Corps, the Army’s combat arm, whose personnel primarily fight on foot. One officer serves in the Signals Corps, responsible for military communications, while another belongs to the Ordnance Corps, which handles the procurement, storage, and maintenance of weapons, ammunition, vehicles, and other military hardware.
The Army suspects are predominantly members of the 56 Regular Course of the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), who trained between 27 September 2004 and 4 October 2008. Six members of this course—four lieutenant colonels and two majors—are among the first batch of those arrested.
The remaining Army officers are drawn from other NDA courses, including the 44th, 47th, 59th, and 60th Regular Courses, as well as Short Service Commission Courses 38 and 43. The course affiliations of two Army officers, along with those of the naval and air force personnel, could not be immediately confirmed.
The paper further quoted “knowledgeable and reliable sources” as saying that the coup plotters planned to assassinate President Bola Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shettima, Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Speaker of the House of Representatives Tajudeen Abbas among others.
Without categorically denying that the officers were involved in an alleged coup, the military said its probe of the officers “is a routine internal process aimed at ensuring discipline and professionalism is maintained within the ranks.”
