[1] In July 1975, Mohammed was Director of Military Intelligence, and formed and executed the 1975 Nigerian coup d'état plan with other officers, including Shehu Musa Yar'Adua, Joseph Nanven Garba, Muhammadu Buhari and Ibrahim Taiwo, to depose General Yakubu Gowon, after which they transferred power to General Murtala Muhammed as head of state.

[2][3] Immediately after the coup, he was appointed Governor of Benue Plateau State.

[4] After Olusegun Obasanjo had taken over control, he recalled Mohammed in March 1976, and appointed him to the Supreme Military Council as Director General of the Nigeria Security Organisation with the additional responsibility for police security.

After General Olusegun Obasanjo handed over to elected civilians at the start of the Nigerian Second Republic in 1979, Muhammed retired from the army.

In 1999, President Olusegun Obasanjo made Mohammed his chief of staff, and President Umaru Yar'Adua re-appointed Mohammed as chief of staff when he assumed office on 29 May 2007.