Abacha's headquarters at Aso Rock in the new capital at Abuja seethed with intrigue, suspicion, and rumour. The head of state himself was rarely seen, seldom attended meetings, frequently neglected official business, and did not attempt to tour the country. A man of few words and no intellectual pretensions, he hated reading but was a good listener, an astute schemer, and a ruthless executor, greedy for wealth, obsessed by security, and uninhibited in resort to violence. His sinister Chief Security Officer, Major Hamza al-Mustapha, controlled an Israeli- and Korean-trained Strike Force with its own detention camps, interrogation centres, and assassination unit. The obsession with security was not merely paranoid. Major-General Chris Alli, Chief of Army Staff in the first months of the regime, recalled that both the Director of Military Intelligence (Army) and Abacha's deputy, Lt Gen. Diya, had suggested a coup to him before he was retired in August 1994 on suspicion of planning one.

The alleged coup plot used to ensnare Obasanjo surfaced late in 1994 and centred on Brig.Gen. Lawan Gwadabe, who had commanded Babangida's elite armoured troops but had been rusticated by Abacha to distant Yola, a most unlikely place from which to launch a coup. Gwadabe was arrested late in February 1995 with other officers and civilians. Yar'Adua was picked up on 9 March. According to an account that Obasanjo transmitted from prison, presumably based on allegations during his interrogation, the regime had ordered security operatives in Abeokuta to report any information incriminating him, at which a zealous agent had claimed that Yar'Adua was planning a coup with Obasanjo's support.