How EFCC recovered $1m in Badeh’s house -Witness

A prosecution witness, Goji Mohammed, on Tuesday, gave a vivid explanation to a Federal High Court in Abuja how the operatives of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) recovered $1million cash during a raid on the house of a former Chief of Defence Staff, Alex Badeh.

Badeh is standing trial along Iyalikam Nigeria Limited on a 10-count charge of alleged N3.97billion money laundering, criminal breach of trust and corruption.

The former Chief of Defence Staff was said to have abused his office as CDS by using the dollar equivalent of N1.4billion removed from the accounts of the Nigerian Air Force to purchase properties in choice areas of Abuja between January and December, 2013.

Mohammed, who testified as PW15, told Justice Okon Abang that he was a member of the Special Task Force (STF) team whose mandate was to investigate cases reported to the Commission from the National Security Adviser’s (NSA) office.

Led in his evidence-in chief by the lawyer to the EFCC, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs, SAN, Mohammed said: “I was instructed to conduct a search by the Head of the STF ‘Team B’ on a property belonging to the defendant (Badeh) located at No 2b Nelson Mandela Street, Asokoro Abuja.

“In early February 2016, Badeh was brought out of detention facility to witness the search on his property and his assistant was also present. The search was conducted and a lot of documents, including landed property documents, bank account document, were recovered.

We also discovered that some of the furniture in the house contained Badeh’s name. We took record of the items after which the Investigating Officer (IO), signed and the defendant counter-signed.”

Mohammed further shed more light on how the second search was conducted with the help of an intelligence report received on another property belonging to the Badeh which is located at No. 6, Ogun River street, Maitama, Abuja.

The witness said: “In the report, there were allegations of many cars including SUV salon parked within the premises of the building. Getting to the building, we discovered it was empty, no cars, no security personnel.”

According to him, the security operatives entered the house through the balcony as the front security door and the back door were all locked. He also narrated how all the rooms were searched one after another.

“In the upstairs, we discovered the biggest room which has a bed with side drawers and a large wardrobe. In one of the wardrobes, at the upper compartment, there was a pack of kettle, as we opened it, we saw the bag filled with money in US dollars and we counted the money which is in 16 bundles of $50,000 each. We also found two sealed bundles of $100,000 each, giving a total of $1million.

He further told the court that a red box containing a knife which had an encrypted name and two waybills of furniture supplied to the building were also recovered. He added that the security officer of the house was around when the search was conducted.
Jacobs thereafter sought to tender the search warrant, red box as well as the two waybills in evidence.

But the lawyer to Badeh, Mr. Lasun Sanusi, SAN, raised an objection against the admissibility of the items, arguing that there was the need to oblige him with copies of the documents. He also urged the court to adjourn the matter in order for him to ask his client questions on it.

Responding, Jacobs argued that Sanusi had enough notice as it was number 20 on the list filed on February 26, 2016. He urged the court to show the video clip of how the search was conducted.

Sanusi further opposed the admissibility of the waybill and the red box. He urged the court to reject it, saying that they were irrelevant as the search was conducted without the presence of his client.

But Jacobs cited Section 149 and 150 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2016, arguing that a search warrant is to be made in front of two witnesses and the person the warrant is addressed to. He went further to explain how the witness can be anyone in the neighborhood.

The case has been adjourned till Thursday for continuation of trial.