{"id":127008,"date":"2026-05-11T18:06:59","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T17:06:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=127008"},"modified":"2026-05-11T18:06:59","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T17:06:59","slug":"i-warned-them-coup-will-fail-islamic-cleric-testifies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/i-warned-them-coup-will-fail-islamic-cleric-testifies\/","title":{"rendered":"I warned them coup will fail, Islamic cleric testifies"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">By John Azu<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">An Islami cleric, Sheikh Sani\u00a0 Zaria, told has\u00a0 investigators that he warned the alleged coup plotters that the plan would fail and that they would eventually be exposed after being made aware of it.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">His confession was contained in a recorded statement he made with investigators, which was played back before a Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Sani Zaria is among the six individuals currently facing trial over the attempted coup plot before the court.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Others are former Governor of Bayelsa State Timipreye Silva, who is said to be at large; Major General Mohammed Ibrahim Gana (retired); retired Navy Captain Erasmus Ochegobia Victor, Inspector Ahmed Ibrahim, Zekeri Umoru, and Bukar Kashim Goni.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Sani Zaria said he became acquainted with the alleged ringleader, one Colonel Maaji for less than a year and was approached through a man identified as Sanda for prayers concerning the alleged coup plot.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">According to him, Sanda informed him that his \u201coga\u201d intended to stage a coup and needed spiritual prayers and divination regarding its success.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The cleric told a military Special Investigation Panel that after conducting prayers, he informed them the operation would fail and that two persons would eventually betray those involved.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He said a message was later relayed back to him through Sanda requesting further prayers so that the two individuals would not betray the group.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The defendant further stated that money was subsequently sent to him for prayers and charity, while names of individuals allegedly involved in the plot were also forwarded to him for inclusion in the prayers.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He said shortly after the prayers commenced, Sanda informed him that Colonel Maaji had not been seen for four days, adding that he later learnt through media reports that arrests had been made over an alleged coup plot.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In the video, Sani maintained that the funds transferred to him were not payments for supporting a coup but were meant for prayers, adding that although he was aware of the coup, he didn&#8217;t know who to report to.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The defendant narrated that he was eventually arrested after visiting the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over restrictions placed on his bank account.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">According to him, he had gone to withdraw from the money transferred to him when he discovered that the account had been flagged.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">After the video, the prosecution counsel sought to tender the extra-judicial statements allegedly made by the defendants\u00a0 to the military panel but defence lawyers objected to the move, contending that the videos were\u00a0 not admissible in evidence as they were not obtained voluntarily as provided by sections 15 and 17 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA).<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Further, their request for separate trial-within-trial to ascertain the authenticity of the videos, was opposed by the prosecution counsel.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In a ruling, Justice Joyce Abdulmalik ordered a joint trial-within-trial to determine the voluntariness and admissibility of both the written and video statements of all six defendants.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">She fixed May 12 for the continuation of proceedings.<\/div>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By John Azu An Islami cleric, Sheikh Sani\u00a0 Zaria, told has\u00a0 investigators that he warned the alleged coup plotters that the plan would fail and that they would eventually be&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":127010,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>I warned them coup will fail, Islamic cleric testifies - Pointblank News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/i-warned-them-coup-will-fail-islamic-cleric-testifies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"I 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