Nigeria, 1995 — military coup conspiracy
Event Summary
This entry is coded 14 March 1995, corresponding to the alleged March 1995 coup plot against Nigerian military ruler General Sani Abacha, widely remembered as the phantom coup. Abacha's government announced it had uncovered a plot to overthrow him, reportedly planned for around 1 March 1995 during the Eid-el-Fitr festival. Retired General Shehu Musa Yar'Adua was arrested on 9 March and former head of state General Olusegun Obasanjo on about 13 March, with reports of dozens to as many as 300 military and civilian detentions.
A secret military tribunal headed by Major General Patrick Aziza convicted around 40 people in July 1995: Obasanjo received a life sentence, Yar'Adua a death sentence later commuted to life, and several journalists were also imprisoned. Many observers, including a later head of Nigeria's anti-corruption commission, described the affair as a phantom coup engineered to purge critics, noting that a key accuser retracted his statements as coerced. Obasanjo and others were pardoned after Abacha's death in June 1998.
The 14 March 1995 coding matches the wave of arrests announced in mid-March.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
47503141995
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Abacha jailed the alleged plotters and remained in power until his death in 1998.
Baseline coding: Plot discovered and disrupted before execution. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
CSP
New York Times
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →