One of the suspects arrested in connection with the killing of Air Marshal Alex Badeh, former Chief of Defence Staff has given a chilling account of the attack, in a leaked video.
The suspect identified as Shuaibu Rabi said his gang wanted to rob the retired general, but they also killed him in the process. He spoke in Hausa in the video published by Punch.
According to the newspaper, the suspect said he and his friends received information that Badeh was in possession of a huge sum of money which he wanted to use in purchasing a parcel of land in Nasarawa State.
The 25-year-old suspect said after killing Badeh, he and his friends stole a bag which contained the huge sum of money, which he said was bigger than he ever saw in his life.
“What happened was that, on a certain day, my elder brother went to a market, where he met with one Churuma. Churuma told him that he got information that an old soldier (Badeh) wanted to buy a parcel of land but would be buying the land in cash.
“He said we would trail the soldier on that day and we would block him and collect the money. So, on that day, when we saw him coming Churuma signalled to us that it was him. Some of us stayed behind his vehicle in case he would want to reverse while Churuma stayed in front.
“But when he (Badeh) saw Churuma with a gun, he did not do like he wanted to reverse, he attempted to hit Churuma with his car but Churuma dodged to the side and then opened fire on him.
“After that, we opened the car and found a bag of money and went with it. When we opened the bag, the money was beyond what I had ever seen before.”
When asked if the money was in Naira or foreign currency, the suspect said it was in Naira.
He added that they were able to abduct Badeh’s friend who was in the car.
Badeh: Suspect’s confession a lie, our son was broke – Family opens up
However,family of late former Chief of Defence Staff, Air Vice Marshal, Alex Badeh, have refuted claims by a suspect in custody of the Police that the late Military Chief was killed while attempting to rob him of huge sums of money.
The family countered the claim by the suspect, saying that the late Military Chief did not even have up to N500 cash on the day that he was killed.
The family insisted that contrary to the claim, Badeh did not discuss any issue about the acquisition of land.
They described the confessioned of the suspect as a “cook-up story to deceive the public and hide the killers and their intentions.
The family spoke with Vanguard Newspapers at the residence of the late Chief of Air Staff in Abuja to react to the claim by the suspected killers.
The family delegated only one member to speak on the condition that his or her name not be mentioned in the report.
“We called you here because we have been following your report in Vanguard since our son and brother, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, was killed by yet-to-be identified people.
“We are not happy with the report being put out to the public there on the circumstances that led to his death.
“We as a family, believe that some people responsible for his death want to deceive the public by hiding the facts of what happened, how it happened and those responsible.
“I want to emphatically tell you here that contrary to the claim that he went to his farm on the fateful day with huge amount of money to buy additional farmland, there was nothing like that.
“In fact, he had no money on him that day, not even N500 in the vehicle. “As I told you, no money, I repeat, no money was in that vehicle. Not even N500 was in that vehicle on that day he was killed.
“I repeat that no N500 not even N1000 was in that motor he drove that he was killed that day.
“Before his death, a villager who knew he was on the farm that day went to meet him to get money to buy paracetamol tablet for his headache he could not afford the money for him. Instead, he asked the person if he could go to Panda Market.
“When the man said he could, our brother told him to pick 10 mudus (measured quantity) of maize to sell in the market and buy drug for himself, saying that was the only help he could render to him since he had no cash to give out.
“He took time to narrate to the person that as he was talking to him, there was a huge refuse dump at his house in Abuja and the people responsible for packing it, that is the Abuja Environmental Protection Board, had refused to do so because he had no money to pay for the packing.
“He added that his cook and the cleaner in his house had not been paid, explaining further that those were the reasons he went to farm on that day to pick some bags of harvested maize, like 100 bags, to sell so as to raise money to settle those issues.
“Again, he told his workers on the farm that since they have blocked his pension, his only source of getting money, only three out of the eight working for him can remain as he wouldn’t have money to pay all the eight anymore.
“He said ‘I’m sorry to tell you this but this is the reality, I can only retain three workers now, the five of you have to go so that I won’t be owing you salaries. He said I can be selling maize and be paying salary for the three that I will retain.
“He did not have N500 on that day they killed him, I swear to God. All this you are hearing is a cook-up story.
“He went to farm to pick some bags of corn to sell so that he could raise money to pay the workers on the farm, the cook and cleaner in the house as well as for the packing of refuse dump here in the house.
“You can see the huge refuse dump here near the wall. If you see this refuse, they had to shift it from this wall closer to the primary school there because of the odour oozing out from the waste bins. You can see the dustbins there (pointed to it). “So where did they get the information they released to the public from?”
