Twelve months after a former Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, was gunned down, the police have failed to arraign his suspected killers.
It was learnt that about 14 suspects were expected to be prosecuted, including the six security aides to the late CDS.
Our correspondent gathered that the delay in the arraignment of the suspects was due to the failure of the military authorities to hand over the six security aides to the police.
Badeh, who was facing trial for money laundering was attacked and shot dead along Keffi-Abuja Expressway on December 18, 2018, while returning from his farm in the area.
The police had paraded five suspects linked to the murder, including one Shuaibu Rabo, 25, who said the former CDS was killed while they were trying to rob him of money meant for the purchase of new farmland.
Sources informed our correspondent in Abuja on Thursday that the military had given the statements made by Badeh’s aides to the police, but the force legal department complained that the statements should have been recorded on police-issued statement forms and not on ordinary papers.
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A source said, “The military authorities have given the police the statements made by the security aides to Badeh, but the statements were not properly recorded in police statement forms as was the practice. This has to be addressed before the suspects could be taken to court.
“Apart from this, the police have not interacted with the suspects in military custody. The police need to interact with the security aides to verify the statements and confessions made to the military investigators. This has to be done before the charges can be drafted and filed.”
A senior officer, who is familiar with the investigation, said the security details to the ex-CDS ran away after their principal was killed, adding that they also hid some of their ammunition to create the false impression that they put up a great firefight during the attack.
“The security aides would be tried for criminal conspiracy for failing to defend their principal when he was attacked. They actually drove to an unknown location where they wasted some of their bullets. They also hid some ammunition to give the impression that they were spent. They confessed to this under interrogation,” the officer stated.
Badeh was the Chief of Defence Staff between January 2014 and July 2015, after he earlier served as the Chief of Air Staff between October 2012 and January 2014.
The Nigerian Air Force Director of Public Relations and Information, Air Commodore Ibikunle Daramola, who broke the news of his death on Twitter, said Badeh died from “gunshot wounds sustained when his vehicle was attacked.”
