The family of Alex Badeh, former chief of defence staff, has
refuted claims by a suspect in police custody that the late
military chief was killed because he resisted the attempt to rob
him of a huge sum of money.
In a video widely circulated online, the suspect, who spoke in
Hausa, said he and his brother planned the robbery because they
learnt that the late Badeh was in possession of money that he
wanted to use in buying a parcel of land in Nasarawa state.
The suspect said they had only planned to rob Badeh but that
they opened fire on him when he tried using his car to hit
them.
However, in an interview with Vanguard at the residence of the
deceased, the family countered the claim of the suspect, saying
Badeh did not have up to N500 cash on the day that he was
killed.
Describing the suspect’s narration as an attempt to deceive the
public, the family said Badeh did not discuss any issue about the
acquisition of land.
The newspaper said a member of the family gave the reaction at
the Abuja residence of the late military chief.
“We called you here because we have been following your report
on our son and brother, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, was killed by
yet-to-be identified people,” the unidentified family member
reportedly said.
“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 the vehicle he
drove that he was killed that day.”
The family member said before he died Badeh was so broke that he
could not afford to give someone money to buy panadol.
He said the former defence chief was also unable to pay some of
his domestic staff because his pension and bank accounts had been
blocked.
“Before his death, a villager who knew he was on the farm that
day went to meet him to get money to buy paracetamol for headache.
Since he could not afford to give him money, he asked the person if
he could go to Panda Market,” he said.
“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?”
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