Nigeria, 2004 — military coup conspiracy
Event Summary
This entry is coded 30 March 2004, corresponding to the alleged 2004 coup plot against President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria. Around late March and early April 2004 Obasanjo's civilian government investigated what it called a serious breach of national security, interrogating nearly 30 mid-ranking military officers, most of them from the mainly Muslim Hausa-speaking north, and impounding their cell phones. Major Hamza al-Mustapha, the former head of personal security for the late military dictator Sani Abacha, was identified as a possible leader and taken from prison for questioning.
In October 2004 the government formally charged four military officers and a civilian with treason for plotting to kill Obasanjo by shooting down his helicopter with a Stinger surface-to-air missile; the charge sheet alleged that al-Mustapha disbursed money for the missile between November 2002 and March 2004, and that Navy Commander Yakubu Kudambo had drafted a coup speech outlining a new regime. The 30 March 2004 coding sits at the close of that alleged funding window and the start of the late-March and April 2004 investigation and arrests.
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
47503302004
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Obasanjo's government said it foiled the plot and charged the suspects with treason.
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
Wikipedia
Xinhua News Agency
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 →