Nigeria, Aug. 10 -- Nigerian Army colonel Mohammed Ma'aji allegedly spearheaded a plan to overthrow Nigeria's democratically elected government in a coup d'etat last year. But the alleged plot reportedly collapsed before it ever became public knowledge.

Nigeria's chequered history has seen a mix of "phantom coup" thwarted in the middle of planning, coups foiled during execution, and six successful coups.

In 2025, after over three decades of the nation's clean break from coup d'etats, another alleged attempt ended in a series of arrests and interrogations of serving and retired military officers, including civilians suspected of playing various roles in the plot to topple the President Bola Tinubu administration.

In its first official r...