Fresh facts have emerged about the killing of former Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh (rtd) by gunmen.
Two of the suspected killers arrested by Special Forces of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) have started singing. Insiders squealed that;
“They were arrested between Abuja and Nasarawa (State).” Some of the suspects have explained why Badeh was killed. It was learnt that the suspects collected N2.5 million ransom to release Badeh’s friend, Engr. Joseph. New Telegraph learnt that Operatives of the Inspector- General of Police, Ibrahim Idris’ Special Intelligence Response Team (IRT), arrested Badeh’s killers. The suspects were arrested between Sunday and Monday.”
We gathered that December 18th operations that led to the death of the former Chief of Air Staff was a robbery operation that went awry. The suspects confessed that they had no intention of killing Badeh when he was accosted, but his driver’s refusal to stop when he was flagged down made them to open fire on his convoy.
Sources told us that what triggered the operations was the money in Badeh’s possession. The money was to be used to purchase an expanse of land for his farm….
“We learnt from local people near the farm of the ex-CDS that Badeh had in his possession, an undisclosed amount of money, which he had wanted to use in buying a second farm land beside his farm off the Kaduna-Keffi Road at the time he was killed.”
“His attackers, who were said to have gotten pre-knowledge of the said transaction, were said to have staged a robbery attack with the intention of dispossessing him of the money. The gunmen were seven in number when they accosted the ex-CDS, some of them were putting on military uniforms while others were on mufti. They set up a roadblock and when the ex-CDS got to their location, they flagged him down and the driver refused to stop and they started shooting at the vehicle. They injured his driver, killed the General and kidnaped his friend known as Engr. Joseph.”
“The gunmen made away with the money in the General’s possession. It’s quite surprising that his military escort following him behind refused to fight back when they attacked the General.”
Insiders added that Badeh became a victim of the attack because the man who owned the farm land he had wanted to buy asked the former CDS to bring the cash back the following day to Keffi town because of safety.
“Unknown to these men, one of the middlemen in this transaction had contacted Fulani bandits/kidnappers to attack and rob whoever was in possession of that money, hence they waited in the bush along the Keffi-Kaduna road for the jeep carrying the money to come. The middleman has been in the transaction from the inception and he was aware that Badeh was going to pay in cash.”