General Christorpher Musa (retd), Minister of Defence, has defended the position of the Nigerian military’s earlier denial of the foiled coup plot aimed at toppling the government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Musa specifically said that if the military top hierarchy had not acted with wisdom and intelligence needed to get to the root of the matter with proven facts, it would have been difficult to nip it in the bud and get the culprits.
The Minister of Defence who stated when he featured on Channels Television programme ‘Sunday Politics’ said it would have been unwise to rush to the public with unverified facts.
The former Chief of Defence Staff explained that given the fact that the plotters know and understand the consequences of their actions, they would have disappeared if a coup plot was announced by the military authorities.
In the words of Musa; “The truth is that we wanted to be sure because it was an act of indiscipline and it is all part of it because of what they did started just like that.
“So, it was during the investigation that these details of these things got revealed. And so, it was important for us to follow the steps to ensure that what we are reporting is direct and factual.
“This is because coup is such a serious thing that we don’t want to say this today, and tomorrow we say another thing. It is better we say no for now until we find out after thorough investigation,” he explained.
There was a reported alleged coup plan in late September 2025 which was targeted at overthrowing the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led administration.
The foiled coup plot was eventually confirmed by the Defence Headquarters on January 26, 2026 through the joint intelligence of the Nigerian Army, Department of State Services (DSS), and the Defence Intelligence Agency (NIA).
