The Minister of Defence, retired Gen. Christopher Musa, said Sunday that he was among the intended targets of the recently foiled coup plot against President Bola Tinubu, and that the conspirators planned to arrest him or shoot him if he resisted.
Musa disclosed this while appearing on Politics Today, a Channels Television programme, describing the suspects behind the plot as “a bunch of very unserious individuals.”
“I was also a target, I am sure you know. I was supposed to be arrested, and if I refused, I was supposed to be shot,” he said, adding that he played a key role in helping security agencies foil the plan.
Musa dismissed the ability of the suspects to successfully challenge the Nigerian state, saying their actions reflected a misunderstanding of Nigeria’s democratic history and the strength of its armed forces.
“But again, I think these guys were just a bunch of very unserious individuals that I really don’t know. If you look at the calibre of the individuals, I really don’t know what got into their heads to think that they could take on the armed forces like that,” he said.
He also said Nigerians themselves would have resisted any attempt to overthrow a democratically elected government.
“What I even said was that even Nigerians would have fought them. Even without the armed forces, Nigerians would have stood against them. Remember how Nigerians fought against the military rule for quite some time,” he said.
On the arrests made so far, Musa said most of the suspects had been apprehended, with only “maybe one or two” still at large. He said the plot originated with a colonel who felt disgruntled after being denied a promotion.
“You know that the armed forces is really very strict about its promotions system. But he didn’t make it. So what he decided to do was probably go around, look at other people that had one issue or the other…with the aim of bringing them in,” Musa said.
He expressed concern for junior officers allegedly involved, saying they had been drawn into the plot without fully understanding it.
“My pain is all those young officers who didn’t understand what was going on that he put in this mess. Now they have to face the consequences,” he said.
Musa emphasised that the plot revolved around a single individual, noting, “But he was just a colonel. I can’t even imagine a colonel ever thinking of doing such a thing.”
