Following the raid carried out by the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission, EFCC, on the farmland belonging to former Chief of Defence
Staff, CDS, Air Chief Marshal, Alex Badeh, in Kugwuru village, Karu, Nasarawa
state, here is the detail and images of how the raid was carried out.
It was gathered that operatives of the anti-graft agency,
following a tip-off, broke into Badeh’s room, ransacked the ceiling of the
farmhouse and even went into underground septic tanks in search of money they
claimed he had hidden on the farm.
It was gathered that in the process of the raid, an operative
got stuck in the septic tank but was rescued by the former CDS’ domestic staff.
In a letter addressed to the Minister of Justice and Attorney
General of the Federation, AGF, Abubakar Malami, Counsel to Badeh, Akin Olujimi
alleged that the operatives even threatened to shoot some of Badeh’s domestic
staff if they refused to cooperate by revealing to them ”where the ex CDS hid
the money.”
Olujimi, in the letter urged the AGF to address the “continuous
harassment, threat to life and vandalization of property by security
operatives.”
According to the letter, the search was carried out by a set of
plain clothes operatives who “cut open the wired fence, entered through it with
their Hilux van and forced the farm manager to open the gate for their bus to
gain access.
“They were said to have lined up everybody in the farm and threatened to shoot them if they do not cooperate by telling them where the ex CDS hid the money.“They said they came with information that money was hidden near the underground sewage tank. They later identified themselves to be EFCC operatives but failed to provide any search warrants.“It is on the back of these events that our client has considered it pertinent that we bring the matter to your notice the actions of the operatives which we do not believe were authorized by you. Their actions are patently illegal and they constitute a breach of our client’s constitutionally guaranteed human rights.“May whatever arm of the security operatives involved in these nocturnal invasions, be directed to put a stop to the harassments of our client. They had done it on some occasions in the past.“This renewal of the harassment has alerted our client to the need to cry out for protection. Let nobody plant anything illegal on our client’s farm or his house and then turn around to claim that they found any such thing in his farm or house.”
Photographs of the raid which was carried out on April 6th and
9th 2017 at about 9pm to 1am respectively show that the operatives destroyed
some of Badeh’s properties during the exercise.
Reacting to the action of the anti-graft agency, a group known
as The New Nigeria Patriots faulted the action of the EFCC, saying Badeh
remains the most vilified ex public officer in Nigeria at the moment.
National Coordinator of the group, Samuel Ndubuisi, described as
sad the fact that the former CDS, who dedicated many years to the service of
his fatherland, should be treated as such.
Ndubuisi stressed that Badeh has been unfairly treated by the
Federal Government.
According to the group’s Coordinator, “The whole country was
made to believe Badeh was arrested in connection with the Federal Government
investigation of diversion of funds meant for arms procurement to aid the war
against Boko Haram.”
He, however, stated that when Badeh was arraigned, “no mention
of his involvement in Dasukigate was made.”
The group said it has consistently monitored the court
proceedings and that the prosecution has not presented a single evidence
linking Badeh to any crime.
Nudubuisi said the constant harassment of Badeh was borne out of
desperation to justify the huge money being spent on lawyers in the name of
fighting corruption.
“If you raid the properties of an innocent man a million times, that will not make him guilty of a crime he did not commit. If you open the septic tank of an innocent man, you can only find faeces,” he said.
Badeh is currently facing an 11-count charge of criminal breach
of trust and corruption to the tune of N3.9bn levelled against him by the Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
See photos of the search below…
Very sad indeed. How did we get here with a Nepa bill instead of looking for college degrees. We are now doing political hounding rather than using modern crime deterrents. Cashless policies, street cams, well trained police force, well identified national citizen database are examples of what reduces corruption in modern climes. It is true that many Nigerians asked for better change and supported the most corrupt set of masquerading politicians who wanted political power, yet the torture has gone too far. Let God deliver this nation from APC whose combat frontiers are political rather than developental; for a good leader can make this nation great again.
ReplyDeleteIf this is the way farm house used to be, everyone would like to be a farmer! Dear anonymous, Do you know that cashless policies have been in place before this present administration? Yet it has not adequately prevent the politicians from looting. Do you realize that street cameras cannot capture the crimes committed inside your rooms or capture loots hidden in cars and basements of our houses? Do you realize that national database project in Nigeria has started since 1977 and has never been completed? Do you know that there are many police colleges in Nigeria to train police and other security apparatus? Yet, the more we have illiterate policemen -
Deletegraduates of corrupted police college everywhere. We are the ones who can deliver this nation/ourselves from the grips of the political elites/PEPs as they are called. God will not come down or send down any of his angels to go and arrest or destroy all these enemies of Nigeria. It is we Nigerians that will rise up, change our mindsets, distant our minds and thinking from ill-gotten wealth, ostracize anyone that enriches himself with the public funds, let the political office holder/elected leaders or any type of leader knows that without followers, there is no leader.
We need to wage war on the corrupted members of the judiciary. They are the hope of the corrupted people because they (corrupted people) knew that if they can meet the monetary/material demands of these lawyers and judges, they will be exonerated. Henceforth, we should all resolve that anyone accused of corrupt practices while in office should not engage the service of a lawyer. An open court should be setup where the person will tell the whole nigerians what went wrong with the public resources committed to his hand. No lawyer stood or vouch for when we employed him, how could a lawyer no come to his defense when we are asking him to give account of his stewardship?
once they know that no lawyer will represent them, the tendency to acquire illegal wealth will reduce to the minimum. It is like the case of the hoodlums, once they commit a crime, they know that one godfather is coming to rescue/bail them out. They will always continue and commit greater one next time and many others with such tendencies will join and toe the same path.
You wanted change and they are finding people that belongs to me and you being buried everywhere and still persecuting the government. What kind of people are we in this country. Thank God we are not in China. They would have been executed by now
ReplyDeleteYou wanted change and they are finding money that belongs to me and you being buried everywhere and still persecuting the government. What kind of people are we in this country. Thank God we are not in China. They would have been executed by now
ReplyDeleteStill sad over your master's failure? pessimism!
ReplyDelete