TheCable

“One Ayodele Fayose” is the original owner of a piece of property Alex Badeh, former chief of defence staff, bought for N650m, Mustapha Yerima, a witness, has claimed.

Yerima, who is the fourth witness of the prosecution in the trial of Badeh at the federal high court in Abuja, however, failed to state in clear terms the identity of original owner of the property.

Nevertheless, it is speculated that the incumbent governor of Ekiti state is the original owner of the property.

“In 2013, I got information that NAF through the directorate of works and NAF Properties Limited were shopping for vendors who will partner with them to construct a conference center. While he where trying to find our the nature of the job I got to understand that they were looking for technical assistant,” Yerima said.

“I decided to contact a friend of mine who is a contractor , the owner Builders construction company and we bidded and we won eventually.

“Soon after the director of finance, Air Commodore Yishau approached me and said Badeh is very pleased with our job and that he will want to give us a job. Then we scheduled a meeting,” Yerima claimed.

“When we met, he told me the nature of the job, and that it deals with the construction of malls.

“Then he engaged us in a negotiation for the land, and gave us its C of O.

“It was through that the means that I got to know that the land belongs to one Ayodele Fayose.”

Yerima, a building contractor, while giving his testimony, claimed that the former defence chief bought the property – a piece of land – which is located at Wuse 2 in Abuja,  for the construction of a shopping mall from a third buyer.

He also claimed that he received N860m from the account of the Nigeria air force for the project.

Aliyu Yishau, the first witness of the prosecution and former director of finance of the air force, had also claimed that Badeh facilitated the payment for some pieces of property, including the mall in Abuja through him.

Badeh is facing trial for multiple counts of criminal breach of trust to the tune of N3.9bn brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).