Court grants Badeh N2 billion bail

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Thursday granted bail to the former Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh (rtd) in the sum of N2 billion.

Justice Okon Abang ordered the former defence chief to provide two sureties who are based in Abuja with N1 billion each. He also asked him to surrender his international passport to the court.

Badeh is standing trial on a 10-count charge bordering on money laundering, criminal breach of trust and corruption to the tune of N3.97 billion. But the former CDS pleaded not guilty to the charges preferred against all the charges.

Justice Abang had on March 7 ordered that Badeh be remanded in prison after he was arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) until March 10 when a bail application would be heard.

When the hearing resumed today, the counsel to the EFCC, Rotimi Jacobs (SAN) argued against the granting of the application, explaining that $1 million was found in Badeh’s residence.

The former CDS, has, however, denied that such amount was found in his house. His lawyer, Samuel Zibiri, said the claim was a ‘media hype’ aimed at hurting Badeh’s credibility.