A
Federal High Court in Abuja was told yesterday how former Chief of
Defence Staff Alex Badeh allegedly deployed public funds to acquire N320
million house in Abuja for his 28-year-old son, Kam.
A retired Air Commodore, Aliyu Yishau,
who said he served as former director of Finance and Account of the
Nigerian Air Force (NAF) when Badeh was the Chief of Air Staff (between
September 2012 and December 2013), made this disclosure at the
resumption of proceedings in the trial of Badeh and a firm, Iyalikam
Nigeria Limited.
Badeh and the firm were arraigned on
March 7, on a 10-count charge of breach of trust and corruption for
allegedly diverting about N3.97 billion from NAF’s account.
Yishau, the first prosecution witness,
who was cross-examined by Badeh’s lawyer Akin Olujinmi (SAN), said the
N320 million house was the second of such property acquired in Wuse 2,
Abuja by the former Chief of Defence Staff for his children.
He said the first house located at No:
19 Kumasi Crescent, Wuse II, Abuja was bought for Badeh’s first son,
Alex Badeh (Jnr), at N260 million, with N60 million spent to renovate
it. Yishau added that N90 million was expended in furnishing the
property.
He said the second house, which was
bought at N320 million for Badeh’s last son, is located adjacent to the
one bought for the first son.
When asked how he came about the
information, the witness said he paid for the houses from the N558.2
million taken monthly by Badeh from NAF’s funds.
He said once he converted the N558.2
million to United States dollars and takes it to Badeh in his house, the
ex-Chief of Defence Staff would direct him to make payment from it.
The witness said whenever Badeh directed
him to make payments, he always takes the cash from the former Chief of
Air Staff ’s house to his (witness’) house, from where he hands the
cash to Husseini Salau, an engineer.
“I collected the money from the 1st
defendant’s (Badeh’s) resident. I take it to my house and ask them to
come and collect it. I took the money to his house and he asked me to
remove the equivalent of N260 million to pay for the house. I deducted
the N260 million equivalent from the normal monthly N558.2 million I
take to him.
“He (the 1st defendant) always
authorises the deduction for payment whenever I take the monthly money
to him. I did not give the house renovation job to Salau. I paid N60
million for the renovation of the house based on the instruction of my
boss, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh,” the witness said.
He said he could not recall how many
times he paid the money for the renovation, but admitted that the money
was not paid at once.
The witness said he was not aware that
Alex Badeh Jr was just a tenant in the property at No: 19 Kumasi
Crescent and that he did not see the tenancy agreement between Salau and
Badeh’s son.
He admitted telling the court, in his
evidence-in-chief that Salau and Alex Badeh Jr located the house at No.
19 Kumasie Crescent, Wuse 2.
Yishau said it would not be correct to
say Salau marketed the house to him. He confirmed that he paid N90
million for furniture for the house.
On how he made payment for the
furniture at No:19 Kumasi Crescent, the witness said: “When I received
instruction from my boss, I directed my office at the Nigerian Air Force
headquarters to liaise with Alex Badeh Jr and effect the payment of the
N90 million.”
On whether it was right for him to have made the payments, Yishau said he was acting on instructions from his boss.
“In my statement to the EFCC, I said the
1st defendant has two property in Wuse 2 that cost N260 million and
N320 million. The house that cost N320 million is the house adjacent to
No. 19 Kumasi Crescent, which was purchased from Honourable Bature.
“That was the one purchased for the last
son of the 1st defendant, by name Kam. I cannot remember the address,
but can identify it,” the witness said.
On whether he is a certified accountant,
the witness said he worked as an accountant for the Air Force for 25
years, but that he is not a certified accountant.
Further hearing in the case has been adjourned to May 9 at 11 am.
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