How I bought houses for Badeh - Witness
– One of the houses bought is located at Ogun River street in Maitama Abuja
– The witness said the former chief of defence staff ordered him to pay for the houses from
– The witness said N90 million was used to buy furniture for one of the houses
A witness in the trial of the former chief of defence staff, Alex Badeh has given account of how he helped the accused person buy houses in various locations.
Salisu Abdullahi, a former director of finance with the Nigerian air force said the houses were bought under directives from Badeh, with funds realised from balance of salary payments of air force personnel.
These monies, he noted, were usually transferred from the Nigeria air force account at the headquarters.
Abdullahi said: “Sometime in January 2013, the chief of air staff, air chief Alex Badeh asked me to get someone who can get him a good house he would retire to in Maitama.”
Abdullahi told the court he then called on one of his friends, Barrister Useni Umar who helped me search for property with specification from Badeh.
He said Umar, a real estate expert, called him one evening to inspect some property.
“We went to a site to inspect one of his property, the follow day, I called the chief of air staff and he said I should go to his house in the evening.
“We inspected three property that evening and he (Badeh) selected one of the houses and directed barrister Umar to find out the prizes of the house so that I can pass the information to him,” Abdullahi, a retired air commodore.
Abdullahi said after two days, Umar came back to tell him that the house was N1.1 billion.
“The following day, I called the chief and he agreed to pay the amount, and he asked me to tell barrister Umar to carry out the necessary search and make the property ready for purchase,” he added.
But in January 2013, when he (Abdullahi) was taken the usual amount to Badeh in US dollar currency, the former chief of defence ordered that the money be used to pay for the property.
“He directed that we should pay for the house, he brought a balance in dollars and made up the equivalent of N1.1 billion,” he said.
“I gave barrister Useni Umar the money and directed him to pay for the house,” he added.
However, after the payment, it took sometime for the necessary papers to be worked out.
“When barrister Useni asked for the name, I asked my chief for a name for the house owner, he gave me one name, Iyalikam (the second defendant and a company owned by Badeh),” he said.
The witness continued: “I took him to the place in the evening to inspect the house and he was very please, he asked me to tell Mustafa to start paper process for the house.
“One evening when I took the normal monthly money I take to him in dollars, he brought the balance added to the money I brought and instructed that I should pay for the house.”
The witness said Badeh had also asked that the property should not be registered in his name.
“So we registered the house in the name of Engineer Mustafa Yerima’s company. He also asked us to get an architect that would make a drawing for the plot,” he said.
He was later ordered by Badeh to find out the cost of building the plaza.
The construction of the plaza was to be supervised and monitored by Yerima.
The witness said a few days later, Yerima brought a fee a little above N1 billion but the Badeh said it was too high.
“I cannot remember exactly how much was later agreed but it was between N900 million to N1 billion. And my chief agreed to pay the amount,” he said.
He added that after that Badeh directed him (Abdullahi) to pay the the engineer.
“The sum of about three hundred and something million naira was given to him (Yerima) in dollars as initial payment for the plaza. Thereafter, I told my finance officer at NAF camp, group captain M. L Sini, to pay the balance of the money for the construction of the plaza from the money we normally pay to the chief,” he said.
Abdullahi said he (the witness) instructed the finance officer to pay the money in dollars but later realized at the EFCC that the money was paid in naira.
The witness said the upper part of the plaza was used by Badeh’s son as a restaurant.
After the first two property, Abdullahi helped the former chief of defence buy another property in Wuse 2 in Abuja at N650 million.
Another house was also bought for Badeh’s second son at N260 million in Abuja.
The N260 million property was later renovated at N60 million and furniture worth N90 million was acquired for the house.
Later, a property was bought by Abdullahi for the former defence chief in Adamawa, Yola state capity city at N150 million while another was bought for Badeh’s first son at N330 million in Abuja.
Also, two uncompleted buildings were bought for the former chief of defence in Kaduna through the witness.
Abdullahi further informed the court that all the property were bought using third parties.
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