‘Who really killed Alex Badeh and why are his alleged killers not in court?’ A lot has become clearer

Barely 24 hours after my article titled Who Really Killed Alex Badeh And Why Are His Killers Not In Court? on the 25th of June, an announcement was made that a joint team of the DSS and military operatives had arrested another 14 suspects in relation to the murder. The police had already arrested 5 persons in December 2018 with a video confession of one of the suspects going viral and adding another 14 persons from a different source at that point more or less appeared a confirmation of the worst; a cover-up was in play.

In addition to the lingering question of why the police would keep self-confessed murderers of the immediate past Chief of Defence Staff for 6 whole months without charging them to court, there was now a very glaring one on just how shabby and shameless the authorities were in what any right thinking person would deem a ploy to kill off the case.

Questions were now being asked and getting another fresh batch of suspects would suggest that investigations hadn’t been concluded. It didn’t matter that they were alluding to the lack of credibility of the process. Not that it will surprise anyone but it has been 3 months since the latest arrests and 9 months since the ones before that. Whoever isn’t coming out to publicly declare Buhari and his government the murderers of Alex Badeh is only holding back out of respect for the law.

Anyone would be excused for thinking back then that the Badeh family were overwhelmed by grief when they described the videoed confession of one of the suspects as a charade and adduced their reasons for doing so. Not any more. Its obvious they knew what they were saying. Detained former AAC Presidential candidate and Sahara Reporters Publisher, Omoyele Sowore, has said how he was denied the use of a phone to call his family in DSS detention while Boko Haram commanders had access to not only that but also to televisions and cable in their cells.

There has been nothing to suggest Buhari is a member of Boko Haram other than claims years before he became President that he and a number of northern elites backed the sect to help entrench Islamic rule early on but withdrew when their activities got out of hand. Boko Haram in an attempt to make public mockery of him, named him among its mediators to a dialogue with the Federal Government arranged by President Jonathan in 2012. Buhari declined. The sect is known to slaughter members that renounce it as traitors and that that was the reason for the attack on his life in Kaduna. It has never really gone past that.

But if at all Boko Haram commanders are now accorded VIP treatment in detention then it suggests an appreciable level of expertise in handling ‘friendly scapegoat’ situations. Rather than waiting to be ridiculed for not prosecuting people you have arrested for a murder,why not just extend the deal to include a cozy detention and a hasty and harmless trial? Well, a  lot could go wrong, true.

A spokesperson of the Badeh family gave a heart-breaking account of the travails of the former CDS’ before his demise. His Abuja house couldn’t be cleared of waste because government had stopped him from receiving his entitlements in addition to freezing his accounts on grounds of facing a corruption charge and was only going to his farm that day to arrange for some maize to be sold so he could raise some cash. Their more believable version claims Badeh had already been at the farm and had even given a villager who asked for money to buy drugs, some maize to sell because he had no cash on him.

The interviewed suspect on the other hand claimed they blocked him on his way to the farm and carted away money like he had ‘never seen before’.There were only 5 suspects arrested and admittedly in consonance with his testimony which didn’t indicate there were too many accomplices. The five of them managed to spend all that money ‘he had never seen before’ within the 10 days before they were arrested because nobody told us any cash was recovered.The authorities said Badeh still had the security he was entitled to but they were kilometres behind where he was blocked and shot. Badeh was killed and by the most powerful people in Nigeria and they want you to totally forget it ever happened.

The Buhari administration locked away Sani Baba-Inna, the former aide de camp to Aisha Buhari, for allegedly defrauding persons of N2.5bn in her name. His family members corroborated claims he may have been helping her keep money by adding that he only started to get greedy and had even been made to buy a house for one of her daughters in Abuja. He certainly has a lot to say and for more than a year now, he has still not been charged to court.

It is no secret that former DSS boss, Lawan Daura’s men joined the police in barricading the residences of former Senate President, Bukola Saraki and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu weeks before they invaded the National Assembly. Buhari was fully aware of Daura’s activities and is said to have only sacrificed him from London when foreign countries besieged Acting President Osinbajo with calls as to what was really going on. Daura is Buhari’s townsman whom he pulled out of retirement to head the DSS and he may be privy to quite a lot of sensitive things regarding Buhari and others. He also hasn’t been charged to court a year and 3 months later. We already know the lengths Buhari can go in defiance of the rule of law and public opinion just to protect himself and members of his inner caucus.It is nothing out of the ordinary for government to toss people in jail and forget them.

Buhari as an ex-military man understands just how serious the military and other security agencies take the killing of their colleagues. More so when it is a former Chief of Defense Staff and his suspected killers are in custody. The Badeh situation is one that would ordinarily require a monthly update. They are hiding something and whatever it is, I pray it comes to the fore some day.