In the on-going corruption trial of former Chief of Defence Alex Badeh, a witness has explained how the suspect acquired a landed property to build a shopping mall while he was in office as top brass of the Nigeria Air Force.
Witness Mustapha Yerima said on May 23 in the Federal High Court, Abuja, the land was formerly owned by Ekiti Gov. Ayo Fayose who had sold it many times to a number of buyers.
The last buyer that sold it to Badeh for N650 million was Kasanago Investment Ltd, a property development companied who in turn bought it from the second hand named Tony, owner of Hitex Furniture.
According to Yerima, a contractor Badeh engaged to pull off the alleged fraud, he found out in 2013 about the plan of the Nigerian Air Force to shop for contractors to handle a shopping mall project Badeh.
“The director of finance, Air Commodore Yushau approached me and said his boss is very pleased with our job and that he will want to give us a job. Then we scheduled a meeting,” Yerima told the court.
“When we met, he told me the nature of the job, and that it deals with the construction of malls.”
ALSO SEE: Armsgate: How I acquired properties for Badeh – Witness
Badeh, however, added that that as part of the contract, Yerima’s company, Right Builders Ltd., would be part of the process of purchasing the land from Kasango.
Yerima said Mr. Yushau paid Kasango the N650 million in dollar equivalent, because the owners of Kasamgo Investment insisted on cash payment.
And again, Badeh put Yerima’s name as the owner of the property during documentation.
The EFCC is prosecuting Badeh for a string of sleaze allegedly traced to him while he was in the NAF and the defence headquarters.
He was said to hve been diverting over N500 million monthly from the recurrent expenditure of the service between 2012 and 2014.