The Nigeria Police Force will on Thursday (today) parade some suspects involved in the murder of the immediate past Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh (retd.), The PUNCH has learnt.
The suspects will be paraded at the headquarters of the NPF in Abuja on Thursday.
The investigation involved men of the Nigerian Air Force, the Inspector-General of Police Intelligence Response Team and men of the Nasarawa State police command
“We have made a breakthrough in the case and we’ve arrested suspects who will be paraded on Thursday,” a source said.
The source, however, noted that there were still some suspects on the run.
The suspects in police custody, it was learnt, were local highway bandits who had killed or abducted people in the past but the cases were not reported because they were not high profile.
The former CDS was killed in the evening of December 18, 2018 while returning from his farm.
Out of the three occupants of the vehicle, however, Badeh was the only one that was killed, fuelling speculations that he was assassinated.
Badeh’s friend, who was in the vehicle with him was abducted by the hoodlums but released after his family paid a ransom reportedly running into millions of naira.
The former CDS’ four military guards, who provided security, were said to have been a few kilometres away when the attack took place.
They were subsequently detained and questioned by investigators.
Police sources told our correspondent that Badeh’s murder was most likely an abduction gone wrong and not assassination.
At the time of his death, Badeh was being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for allegedly diverting N3bn from the accounts of the air force.
Badeh’s widow, Mary Iya Badeh, and his two sons, Alex (jnr) and Kam, all on EFCC watch list, had been in the United States since 2016.
The former CDS had forfeited money and choice properties to the Federal Government before his death.
The Man was assassinated and there shouldn’t be any room to have the media forum try to fix his wrongly assassination.
If such a highly rtd Officer can be easily killed by hoodlums this gets to show you that no one is safe while inside the Nigerian society.