Military investigators probing an alleged plot to overthrow President Bola Tinubu are reportedly grilling a Managing Director of a Federal Government agency in the South South region.

According to a report by The PUNCH, two intelligence officers confirmed that the MD was arrested for allegedly transferring a huge sum of money to a former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, who was fingered as one of the financiers of the alleged plot to forcefully change the government.

According to reports, investigators believe the funds were meant to finance the coup.

“The MD (name withheld) transferred a huge sum of money to Sylva.  Investigators are working on the theory that the fund transfer was connected to the coup. He is presently answering questions about what the money was meant for.”

Also arrested, according to the paper, are the younger brother of former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, and his driver.

The former Bayelsa governor’s Abuja house was reportedly raided by investigators on Saturday, with military operatives arresting his younger brother, Paga, who is his Special Assistant on Domestic Affairs and went away with his driver.

The former minister and All Progressives Congress chieftain was outside the country during the operation.

Sources with knowledge of the operation explained that he was planning to return to the country when he heard that the coup leaders had been arrested. He thus shelved his plan to return home.

“Sylva’s Abuja home was raided on Saturday, but he wasn’t around. His younger brother, Paga, who is the SA, Domestic, and the driver, were arrested. Investigators believe Sylva allegedly funded the coup plot. Sylva was abroad and was preparing to leave for Nigeria when he got wind of the arrest of the coup leaders. So, he stayed back.”

The Director, Defence Media Operations, Maj-Gen Markus Kangye, and the Director of Defence Information, Brig-Gen Tukur Gusau, could not be reached for comments on Tuesday as they didn’t pick up calls from our reporter.

Gusau had, in a statement on October 4, said that 16 officers were detained for breaches of military regulations and acts of indiscipline.

“The Armed Forces of Nigeria wishes to inform the public that a routine military exercise has resulted in the arrest of sixteen officers over issues of indiscipline and breach of service regulations.

“Investigations have revealed that their grievances stemmed largely from perceived career stagnation caused by repeated failure in promotion examinations,” the statement partly read.

However, online platform SaharaReporters claimed that the detained officers — ranging from the rank of Captain to Brigadier General —were being held by the Defence Intelligence Agency for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government.

It also alleged that the officers were arrested at their homes across the country.

“The 16 officers were planning a coup. The military authorities were just being diplomatic in the statement released by the spokesperson. They have started holding secret meetings on how to overthrow the President and other top government officials,” SaharaReporters quoted an unnamed official. (The PUNCH)

The House of Representatives on Tuesday raised concern over growing security threats to the National Assembly, including a terrorist threat to bomb the legislative complex.

The Chairman of the House Committee on Internal Security, Garba Ibrahim Muhammad, disclosed this during a public hearing on a bill to establish the Legislative Security Directorate, held at the National Assembly complex, Abuja.

The proposed legislation is titled “A bill for an act to provide for the establishment and the functions of legislative security directorate in the national assembly; to provide for the qualification and condition of service of the sergeant-at-arms and other personnel of the directorate and for related matters, 2024 (hb 1632)”.

Muhammad said intelligence reports and security incidents in recent months revealed that the National Assembly had increasingly become a targeted for criminal and terrorist attacks.

The lawmaker noted that the influx of people into the complex daily, including visitors, lobbyists, and demonstrators, had made it a vulnerable target.

He said: “The National Assembly is going through a lot of security challenges; we have experienced car thefts, motorcycle thefts, vandalism, fake Identity cards, unwanted visitors accessing the National Assembly without documentation, as well as petty trading, which makes the National Assembly look like a small market.

“We have received threats from terrorists to bomb the National Assembly Complex and threats from protesters to lock up the National Assembly. Legislators are exposed to threats from constituents and others who have gained easy access to their offices without any formal appointment

He warned that with the ongoing security challenges, if proper measures were not taken, it would truncate the legislative activities in the National Assembly.

“It is obvious that with the ongoing security challenges, if proper measures are not taken, will truncate the Legislative activities in the National Assembly and if activities are thwarted, there will be no Representation, no oversight, no Annual budget, there will be no plenary at all, and that will destabilise legislative procedure, democracy and the stability of the system, and our Nation at large.

“Effective security management needs a total approach that requires various elements to be integrated to secure our environment for legislative procedure to function effectively and maximally.

“That is why this Bill is very important, because it seeks to address all the challenges as aforesaid and adopt world best practices of Parliamentary security procedures and architecture.”

He also urged state Houses of Assembly to emulate the National Assembly by adopting similar security frameworks to safeguard their legislative environments.

The proposed Legislative Security Directorate Bill (HB 1632) seeks to provide a legal framework for the establishment of a specialised internal security agency within the National Assembly.

…Beats Lagos, Abia, Anambra, Kwara; emerges likeliest to survive without FAAC Allocations

Enugu State has emerged as Nigeria’s most fiscally viable subnational government, according to BudgIT’s 2025 State of States ranking.

The report shows that Enugu State is the most probable state to finance its operating expenses exclusively from internally generated revenue (IGR) and independent of allocations from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC).

However, whereas Enugu, Lagos, Abia, Anambra, and Kwara are the five top states likeliest to survive independent of FAAC receipts, Yobe, Benue, Jigawa, Kogi, and Imo are ranked as the least viable states presently, the report also shows.

The findings are based on Index A, which measures states’ ability to meet recurrent expenditure obligations using only IGR. The research methodology for Index A was the ratio of operating expenses to the state’s IGR. According to BudgIT, states that rank higher on this index exhibit greater financial autonomy and long-term viability.

“States that perform strongly on Index A have comparatively limited dependence on FAAC allocations and thus possess greater viability if they were to theoretically exist as independent entities,” the report stated.

The rankings show that Enugu State scored 0.68, implying that 68 percent of the state’s IGR would have catered to its operating expenses. The scores of the remaining four of the top five states are Lagos State (0.83), Abia State (1.56), Anambra (1.66), and Kwara (1.73).

In 2024, Rivers, Lagos, Ogun, Anambra, and Cross River made the top five rankings, thus the 2025 report represents for Enugu State a quantum leap in improved revenue collection and expenditure management and a major score for the Governor Peter Mbah-led administration.

Although Mbah met the state’s IGR at N30bn in May 2023, he ramped it up to N37bn by the close of the year and scaled it up to N180.05bn in 2024 by introducing technology, including e-payment, to plug leakages and sharp practices in revenue, as well as by widening the tax net to reduce tax and revenue evasion.

Meanwhile, whereas Enugu and Lagos lead in IGR ranking, fewer states meet the 50% threshold, as BudgIT’s 2025 State of States report shows that the number of states generating enough revenue to cover their operating expenses has reduced compared to 2024.

In 2024, Rivers (121.26 percent) and Lagos (118.39 percent) were the only two subnationals that generated more than enough IGR to cover their recurrent expenditure. Rivers is visibly missing in the 2025 analysis.

Thus, in 2025, this coveted group now includes Lagos (120.87 percent) and Enugu (146.68 percent), with Enugu taking the number one spot.

According to BudgIT, 28 states still depend significantly on federal transfers and other external inflows to fund their operations.

On Index A1, which measures IGR growth, Enugu again leads the ranking, followed by Bayelsa, Abia, Osun, and Kano. These states recorded the strongest momentum in boosting internally generated revenues during the 2024 fiscal year.

At the bottom, Kebbi and Yobe recorded negative IGR growth, while Ebonyi, Bauchi, and Benue also posted weak performances. This represents a notable improvement from 2023, when seven states recorded negative growth.

“While it may be too early to celebrate, as the uptick could partly reflect increased inflows from federation transfers, it is a much better performance than the previous year,” BudgIT noted.