Alex Badeh

NIGERIA: BADEH'S AIDES MAY FACE DEATH PENALTY

June 1, 2020:

Six Nigerian Air Force personnel detailed to provide security for the late Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, may face the death penalty following the guilty verdict pronounced on them by the General Court Martial (GCM) constituted to try them, THISDAY checks have revealed on 1st June 2020.
This is in addition to a likely total of 36 years jail sentence for the six personnel as stipulated by the Reviewed Armed Forces Act 2004.
The Nigeria Air Force headquarters had at the weekend issued a statement to the effect that the personnel were found guilty and variously sentenced.
It did not, however, mention specific sentences to individual personnel.
Badeh, who was also a former Chief of Air Staff (CAS), was ambushed and killed on 18 December 2018, by gunmen on his way back from his farm on the Gitata-Keffi highway in Nasarawa State.
The statement had said six NAF personnel, who were aides to the late CDS, were awarded various sentences by the general court-martial sitting at the NAF base, Bill Clinton Drive in Abuja.
The six NAF personnel, who stood trial for various offences, are Squadron Leader Tom Gwani, Flight Sergeant Amu David, Flight Sergeant Philemon Degema, Flight Sergeant Sabo Simon, Sergeant Mukhtar Abdullahi and Sergeant Alfred Alexander.
Four of the personnel were detailed to provide armed escort for Badeh while two others were detailed for guard duty at his house on 18 December 2018, when the former CDS was ambushed and killed by some gunmen on his way back from his farm.
Delivering judgment on the matter at the weekend, the President of the GCM, Air Commodore David Aluku, pronounced the six accused personnel guilty of various charges, including failure to perform military duties by absconding from the convoy of the deceased former CDS while it came under attack, as well as conduct to the prejudice of service discipline for giving false statements.