Alex Badeh spent N800 million to build private shopping mall – Witness

Posted on March 24, 2017 by Staff Reporter

A prosecution witness, Nuhu Dalhatu, on Thursday told a Federal High Court, Abuja, that about N800 million used for the construction of a shopping mall linked to Alex Badeh, a former Chief of Air Staff, was traced to the Nigeria Air Force, NAF’s account.

Mr. Badeh is standing trial along Iyalikam Nigeria Limited on a 10-count charge bordering on money laundering, criminal breach of trust and corruption to the tune of N3.97 billion brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

While being led in evidence by prosecution counsel, Rotimi Jacobs, Mr. Dalhatu, a forensic analyst with the EFCC, told the court that investigations were carried out on a number of properties, linked to Mr. Badeh, one of which was the shopping mall located at 2, Oda Crescent.

“I was asked to investigate the procurement scam that was linked to the Office of National Security Adviser, ONSA, and Nigeria Air Force arms procurement contracts,” he said.

Mr. Dalhatu, who is the 17th prosecution witness, told the court that the property located at 19, Kumasi Crescent, was linked to his son. According to him, his son was invited for interrogation, during which it was discovered that the property was bought at about N260 million through a former NAF Director of Finance.

“We were assigned five properties to investigate, including 19, Kumasi Crescent, Wuse 2; 6, Ogun River, Maitama; 2, Nelson Mandela Street, Asokoro; 2, Oda Crescent, off Adis Ababa Crescent, Wuse 2 and a plaza on Ahmadu Bello, Garki 2,” he said.

“In the course of investigation, we found out that the property located at 2, Oda Crescent, was a five floor mall, under construction,” he said.

He explained further that: “The construction company (Rytebuilders Technologies Limited) was invited, and we requested for its project account. Upon analysis of the Zenith Bank account of the company, we discovered that about N800 million out of the N1.2 billion total turnover, was from the NAF106B and NAF camp accounts from the Mogadishu Barracks, and it was authorized by E.A. Abu and Air Commodore Seyi.”

According to him, both of them were invited for questioning and they both admitted that: “For a period of seven months, N200 million from the account was transferred to Badeh.”

Further hearing in the matter continues on May 2, 3 and 4, 2017.

Source: Premium Times

Video evidence of $1M cash recovered from Badeh presented in court by EFCC.

Posted on February 23, 2017 by Staff Reporter

A Federal High Court sitting in Maitama, Abuja, presided over by Justice Okon Abang on Wednesday admitted in evidence the search warrant used by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, in conducting a search on a house located at No. 6, Ogun Rivers Street, Maitama, Abuja belonging to a former Chief of Defence Staff, Alex Badeh. during which $1million cash was recovered in his wardrobe.

Mr. Badeh is standing trial alongside Iyalikam Nigeria Limited on a 10-count charge bordering on money laundering, criminal breach of trust and corruption to the tune of N3.97 billion.

He allegedly abused his office as CDS by using the dollar equivalent of the sum of N1.4 billion removed from the accounts of the Nigerian Air Force to purchase properties in choice areas of Abuja between January and December, 2013.

At the last sitting, the EFCC through its PW15, Mohammed Goji, told the court how a search conducted on the house of the former CDS led to the recovery of the money.

Attempt by the prosecuting counsel, Rotimi Jacobs to tender the search warrant, a red box and the waybill as evidence was, however, objected to by Mr. Badeh’s counsel, Lasun Sanusi.

Mr. Sanusi argued that the documents were purportedly obtained from an illegal search.

According to him, the law gave the owner of the property the impetus to nominate a representative to witness such search if he or she could not be present.

“It is on record that the defendant was still in detention when the purported search was done in his house at Maitama which is a clear violation of the law.

“My Lord, we are not against the court admitting the search warrant as evidence but we vehemently oppose to the admissibility of the other items,’’ he said.

In response, Mr. Jacobs argued that Section 149 and 150 of ACJA which deals with house search warrant permitted the presence of two witnesses and the person the warrant is addressed to. He went further to explain how the witness can be any one in the neighbourhood.

Justice Abang in his ruling on the admissibility of the documents at the resumed sitting on Wednesday held that, “the first search warrant dated February 3, 2016 and executed on February 11, 2016 was not objected to” and it’s marked at exhibit T103.

The judge also held that issue of the legality of the item “is premature at this time” adding that, “it’s an issue for evidence in the final address”.

Consequently, the documents were admitted as exhibits T104, T105, T106 respectively.

Under further cross-examination, the PW15 insisted that the search was conducted in line with the enabling law and was recorded in a video clip.

Mr. Jacobs sought to tender the clip in evidence saying, “I will like to tender the DVD containing the search in evidence”, but its admissibility was again objected to by Mr. Sanusi, who said the document never came as part of the proof of evidence.

Mr. Sanusi added that, “we are seeing it for the first time in court even in civil cases we are to be given a copy of evidence so that we don’t fall into an ambush”.

He, therefore, asked for adjournment to enable him go through the evidence with his client.

Justice Abang after listening to the submissions of both counsel ordered the prosecution to oblige the defence with a copy of the clip and other documents they might wish to tender as evidence in the course of the trial.

The judge, thereafter, adjourned to March 20 – 23 for continuation of trial.

Source: Premium Times

We found $1m cash in Badeh’s wardrobe, says witness

Posted on February 22, 2017 by Staff Reporter

A prosecution witness in the ongoing trial of Alex Badeh, ex-chief of defence staff, on Tuesday told the federal high court, Abuja, that his team recovered one million dollar cash from Badeh’s house.

Goji Mohammed, the 15th witness to testify in Badeh’s trial, said he was part of the EFCC team, led by Isyaku Sharu, that conducted the search in Badeh’s house in Asokoro, Abuja.

Badeh is standing trial on money laundering offence he allegedly committed while serving as chief of air staff.

The witness also said the team recovered some bank documents, land documents, tax documents and few other instruments.

Mohammed said the commission received intelligence report on another property located at 6 Ogun River Street Maitama, which was found to be Badeh’s property.

He said they accessed the building by climbing the balcony, adding that the security man of the neigbouring house was invited to witness the search.

“When we climbed in, we were in the living area upstairs so we used the stairs and went to the living area downstairs and started our search from there,” he said.

“When we got to the biggest room in the house, we saw a wardrobe, on opening it, we saw a bag and on opening it contained foreign currency.

“We saw 16 bundles of 50 US dollars notes and two sealed bundles containing 100,000 US dollars which we estimated to amount one million US dollars.

“On further counting the money in our office we discovered it was exactly one million dollars.”

He said they also found a red box, which he could not precisely remember what was inside, but added that they also found two way bills of furniture supplied to the building.

When the prosecution sought to tender the search warrant, the red box and the way bill as evidence, the move was objected to by the defence team.

Lasun Sanusi, counsel for the defendant objected to the admissibility of the items, saying they were purportedly obtained from an illegal search.

Sanusi cited section 115 of administration of criminal justice act (ACJA) 2015, which states that the occupant of a place searched or a relation shall be at the house and see the items seized.

He said no provisions of law permitted state security agents to conduct search by looking for strangers on the street to witness it.

Sanusi said the law gave the owner of the property the impetus to nominate a representative to witness such search if he or she could not be present.

“My Lord, the witness had earlier confirmed that when they were to conduct search on the defendant’s house at Asokoro, they took him along to witness the search, why was this other one different,” he said.

“It is on record that the defendant was still in detention when the purported search was done in his house at Maitama which is a clear violation of the law.

“My Lord, we are not against the court admitting the search warrant as evidence but we vehemently oppose to the admissibility of the other items.”

On his part, Rotimi Jacobs, prosecution counsel, argued that section 149 and 150 of ACJA, which deals with house search warrant permitted the presence of two witnesses.

“This permission covers the person to whom the warrant is addressed and a neighbour within the neighbourhood the property is located.”

According to him, the provision allows the person to whom warrant is addressed to look for a witness in the neighbourhood.

He, therefore, argued that no provision of the law compelled the property owner to be present before a search warrant can be executed.

Okon Abang, however, adjourned the matter till February 22 for continuation.

“Alex Badeh stashed $1 Million cash in his wardrobe”, prosecution witness reveals.