Alex Badeh
The Federal High Court in Abuja, yesterday,
admitted in evidence, documents showing
payments to contractors who allegedly worked for
former Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex
Badeh.
After listening to both parties, Justice Okon Abang
ruled that though they were public documents,
they did not fall under those that required
payment of fees. He, therefore, admitted the
documents in evidence as Exhibits B6 and B7.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC) is prosecuting Badeh alongside a firm,
Iyalikam Nigeria Limited, on a 10-count charge of
money laundering.
The admission followed the testimony given by
the Prosecution Witness No. 6 (PW6), Mohammed
Lawan Sini, the then Camp Finance Officer of the
Nigerian Air Force (NFA), against Badeh.
The witness told the court that on assumption of
office, he was intimated of the monthly
disbursement of N558,200,000, officially
earmarked for maintenance of the office of the
Chief of Air Staff.
He added that since he was already made to
understand that the monthly transfer was meant
for official maintenance, he had no need for
details on how the funds were used.
The defense counsel, Chief Akin Olujimi, asked the
court to reject the document, saying there was no
evidence of payment of any fees in the document
tendered in evidence.
“The mere fact that a government department is
making use of a true copy of document, which is
certified, does not exclude the department from
paying appropriate fee for the document,” Olujimi
said.
He, therefore, urged the court to direct that before
the document was tendered in evidence,
appropriate fees were paid.
Olujimi also stated that the witness testified that
he was the Camp Officer between November 2012
to December 2013 and accordingly, it is only a
public officer who had custody of public
documents that could certify same, and not a
person who had held office before and had retired
or been transferred.
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