Abuja, Nigeria: The Federal Government of Nigeria filed a 13-count charge of treason and terrorism against Nigeria’s former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, and six others on April 21, 2026.
Okay News reports that the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation submitted the charges to the Federal High Court in Abuja, signed by the Director of Public Prosecutions of the Federation, Rotimi Oyedepo.
The other defendants are Major General Mohammed Ibrahim Gana, Captain Erasmus Victor, Inspector Ahmed Ibrahim, Zekeri Umoru, Bukar Kashim Goni, and Abdulkadir Sani. The individuals are scheduled to be arraigned before Justice Joyce Abdulmalik on Wednesday morning WAT. Sylva is currently at large.
The court documents state the group conspired in 2025 to undermine the Nigerian state. The charge document said the defendants “conspired with one another to levy war against the state to overawe the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” an offence under Section 37(2) of the Criminal Code.
Prosecutors stated the defendants knew of a planned treasonable act involving Colonel Mohammed Alhassan Ma’aji and failed to inform authorities. The filing said they “knowing that and was intended to commit treason, did not give the information thereof with all reasonable despatch to either the President or a Peace Officer.” The government said the men “did not use any reasonable endeavours to prevent the commission of the offence.”
The government is also prosecuting the defendants under the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022. The document said they “conspired with one another to commit an act of terrorism in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.” Prosecutors said the individuals acted “in a bid to further a political ideology which may seriously destabilize the constitutional structure of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
The charges detail financial transactions prosecuted under the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022. The document said Goni “indirectly retained the aggregate sum of N50,000,000 which forms part of the proceeds of an unlawful act to wit: terrorism financing,” equivalent to approximately $33,300 USD. Sani retained N2 million ($1,330 USD), and Ibrahim took possession of N1 million ($660 USD).
The charge sheet said Umoru, “without going through a financial institution, accepted a cash payment of the sum of N10million” ($6,660 USD) and retained an additional N8.8 million ($5,860 USD) suspected to be proceeds of terrorism financing.
