This part of PREMIUM TIMES’ reporting series revealing missing details of last year’s failed coup against the President Tinubu administration captures how former Bayelsa State Governor Sylva’s alleged donations to the plot were disbursed to the suspected conspirators.
Fresh details have surfaced revealing how former Bayelsa State Governor Timipre Sylva’s alleged financial contributions to the 2025 failed coup plot were distributed to participants assigned strategic responsibilities for the operation.
From the company’s account, the money flowed into the accounts of a bureau de change (BDC) operator, Abdullahi Sani Mohammed, who disbursed the funds as instructed by 50-year-old Army Colonel Mohammed Ma’aji, a central figure in the plot.
PREMIUM TIMES previously reported that Mr Mohammed received N785 million in Mr Sylva’s alleged donations from Purple Waves Limited’s account dedicated to financing the alleged plot.
The Purple Waves account had a balance of more than N5 billion pooled from different sources as of the time disbursement towards the alleged coup planning started in September 2025.
Investigative records assembled for the prosecution of coup suspects show that the BDC operator made 47 payments to various individuals in the thick of the preparations for the alleged coup in the last 11 days of September last year.
PREMIUM TIMES found from the documents that the transfers of more than N700 million to individuals and entities took place from 10 to 30 September 2025, coming close to the two furthest dates insiders proposed to launch the coup strike.
Two dates that insiders kept in view before the plot crumbled were 1 October, Nigeria’s Independence Day, and 4 October.
An earlier date, 27 September, which also featured in the coup deliberations, had passed by the time the conspiracy broke down.
The plot, allegedly aimed at overthrowing President Bola Tinubu’s administration and restoring a military regime in the country, collapsed with the arrest of the suspected coup leader, Mr Ma’aji, on 29 September 2025.
For days, many members of the alleged coup network were unaware of Mr Ma’aji’s arrest.
Mr Mohammed, the BDC man, continued transferring money to beneficiaries, based on Mr Ma’aji’s standing instructions, up till 30 September, a day after the arrest.
He also kept receiving transfers from Purple Waves Limited for disbursement up till 2 October.
Mr Mohammed, a 48-year-old BDC operator based in Kano, Kano State, told interrogators about his longtime business relationship with Mr Ma’aji before the Purple Waves Limited transactions started in September 2025.
He gave an overview of their past foreign exchange transactions in his extrajudicial statement.
“Sometimes, Oga Ma’aji will call me to ask for a dollar price. If he asks me, I’ll tell him. Sometimes, he will ask if he can buy $1,000 or $3,000. Sometimes, he will ask for $10,000 or $9,000.
“Sometimes, Ma’aji can sell dollars to me like $10,000, $7,000 and $20,000. Sometimes $600 or $300 or $1,000 or $8,000. The big amount Ma’aji sold to me was $40,000 and $50,000,” he wrote in his extrajudicial statement during interrogation by military investigators.
Then, the dealings switched to the Purple Wave transactions in September 2025. Mr Ma’aji assured Mr Sylva, who served during the immediate past administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari as the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, that the BDC operator would not be informed of the purpose of the funds.
Investigators found that he carried out the transactions with the bank accounts of his entities identified as Express Link, ASA Multipurpose Concept and LUJI Trade & Investment Ltd.
Recalling the Purple Wave Limited’s inflows into his business accounts, Mr Mohammed said the first major transfers came in two tranches of N150 million each, both paid into his A&A Express Link account domiciled in Providus Bank.
“Oga Ma’aji called me around 18 September (2025), he told me his people will pay money into the account. As I checked the account, I saw N150,000,000 in A&A Express in Providus Bank.
“He sends me a voice note on WhatsApp directing me to pay N10,000,000 in his First Bank account. Later, I received another N150,000,000 in the same Providus account, making it to be N300,000,” he wrote.
Two days after, he said, another N100 million was paid into his second business account, LUJI Trade and Investment, domiciled in Fidelity Bank.
He recalled that this was followed by additional transfers of N50 million, N100 million and another N50 million.
“All these were paid into my LUJI Trade and Investment account in Fidelity Bank,” the BDC operator said.
He confirmed receiving the money shared from Purple Waves Limited’s account domiciled in SunTrust Bank.
Mr Mohammed said he received a total of N785 million from Purple Waves Limited between 20 September and 2 October 2025.
“Later he (Ma’aji) called me to his house in Lokogoma (in Abuja) to calculate some money that I paid into people’s accounts. He brought out his paper and his list to show me and tell me to buy $5,000 to bring to his house,” Mr Mohammed wrote.
Ensuring that the money reached the intended beneficiaries was the BDC operator’s primary responsibility in the alleged plot. Mr Ma’aji would instruct him on who to transfer funds and the amount to transfer to each recipient.
Bank records and the BDC operator’s extrajudicial statement indicate that beneficiaries included serving and retired military officers, Islamic clerics consulted for spiritual support, and others assigned civilian responsibilities.
