Emmanuel Thomas l Tuesday, May 16, 2017
KURU, Nasarawa, Nigeria – The fight against corruption can be very messy sometimes, with operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC at the receiving end.
That was what actually happened at Kugwuru village, Karu Nasarawa state, when operarives of the EFCC swooped on the properties of former Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Mashal Alex Badeh in their quest to prove that Badeh is corrupt.
But while the matter is pending in court operatives of the EFCC and DSS have continued to harass and intimidate his families. In one of the operation in his farm, one of the operatives of EFCC buried himself in foul smelling human faces while combing septic tank for money, arms and ammunitions the agency believes were kept under ground.
They found nothing. But an operative of the EFCC was buried in the faeces and has to be rescued by Badeh’s staff, washed clean and deodorised before he was comfortable to leave the farm.
In a letter addressed to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Akin Olujimi SAN called the AGF’s attention to the “continuous harassment, threat to life and vandalization of property by security operatives.
The letter exclusively obtained by us shows that security operatives invaded the ex CDS’s farm in Nasarawa state on April 6th and 9th 2017 at 9pm and 1am respectively.
The April 6th search was conducted by men of DSS without search warrants. They broke into Badeh’s room in the farm, broke into the ceiling and even into the underground septic tanks in the farm. One of the operatives was said to have been stuck inside the septic tank and was subsequently rescued by Badeh’s staff who had to wash him up having fallen into faeces.
According to the letter, the search of 9th April was carried out this time by another set of plain clothes operatives who “cut open the wired fence, entered through it with their Hilux van and forced the farm manager to open the gate for their bus to enter the farm. They were said to have lined up everybody in the farm and threatened to shoot them if they do not cooperate by telling them where the ex CDS hid the money. They said they came with information that money was hidden near the underground sewage tank. They later identified themselves to be EFCC operatives but failed to provide any search warrants.
Akin Olujimi said “it is on the back of these events that our client has considered it pertinent that we bring the matter to your notice the actions of the operatives which we do not believe were authorized by you. Their actions are patently illegal and they constitute a breach of our client’s constitutionally guaranteed human rights.
“May whatever arm of the security operatives involved in these nocturnal invasions, be directed to put a stop to the harassments of our client. They had done it on some occasions in the past. This renewal of the harassments has alerted our client to the need to cry out for protection. Let nobody plant anything illegal on our client’s farm or his house and then turn around to claim that they found any such thing in his farm or house.”Olujimmi said
Reacting to the development, a group called The New Nigeria Patriots described it as a sad development, the fact that someone who dedicated many years to the service of his fatherland should be treated like this.
According to the National Coordinator of the group, Samuel Ndubuisi, Alex Badeh remains the most vilified ex public officer in Nigeria at the moment. The man has been unfairly treated by the Federal Government. His arrest and detention was widely celebrated in the media.
The whole country was made to believe he was arrested in connection with the Federal Government investigation of diversion of funds meant for arms procurement to aid the war against Boko Haram. When he was arraigned, no mention of his involvement in Dasukigate was made. The group said it has consistently monitored the court proceedings and that the prosecution has not presented a single evidence linking Badeh to any crime. According to the group, the constant harassment of Badeh is borne out of desperation to justify the huge money being spent on lawyers in the name of fighting corruption.
Ndubuisi concluded by saying “If you raid the properties of an innocent man a million times, that will not make him guilty of a crime he did not commit. If you open the septic tank of an innocent man, you can only find faeces
