Suspects arrested over Badeh's murder say it was not an assassination but just armed robbery

FORMER chief of defence staff Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh was murdered during a robbery to avail him of a large sum of cash he was carrying and not as part of an assassination plot according to one of the suspects arrested by the police.

On December 18, Marshal Badeh, 61, was returning from his farm along the Abuja-Keffi highway without a military escort, when he shot by armed gunmen. Following the attack, Marshal Badeh was rushed to a hospital at the military cantonment popularly called Abacha Barracks in Abuja, where he was pronounced dead.

Police have since swung into action and have made several arrests, with one of the suspects, Shuaibu Rabo, 25,  saying during int5errogation, that Marshall Badeh was killed in an attack to rob him of money meant for the purchase of a new farmland. Five suspects have been paraded by the police so far but Marshall Badeh's family have rejected the explanation offered by the suspects, saying they believe he was murdered.

Mr Rabo said: “One day, Yaya went to Gitata market and met Ciroma who gave him a hint that the retired general had bought new farmland and he was bringing the money on a particular day. Ciroma then told Yaya that they should plan on how to go and rob them of the money.

He added that on the day of the incident, they laid an ambush along the road. According to Mr Rabo, it was Ciroma who confirmed Marshall Badeh’s vehicle when it was approaching.

“We blocked the road and some of us were trailing his car. When he reached us, Badeh did not show any intention of turning back, in fact, he acted as if he was going to knock Ciroma down.

"When Ciroma realised that, he jumped off the road and opened fire on Badeh. Thereafter, we ransacked the vehicle and carried a bag of money in local currency," Mr Rabo added.

However, Marshall Badeh's family insisted that contrary to the claim, he did not discuss any issue about the acquisition of land and neither was carrying more than N500 on the day he was killed. Refuting the cause of death, the family  said the claim was a cook-up story to deceive the public and hide the killers and their intentions.

A family spokesman said: " I want to emphatically tell you here that contrary to the claim that he went to his farm on the fateful day with huge amount of money to buy additional farmland, there was nothing like that. In fact, he had no money on him that day, not even N500 in the vehicle.

“No money, I repeat, no money was in that vehicle as not even N500 was in that vehicle on that day he was killed. Before his death, a villager who knew he was on the farm that day went to meet him to get money to buy paracetamol tablet for his headache  but my brother could not afford the money for him and instead, he asked the person if he could go to Panda Market."