Former Nigerian Defense Chief: I Did Not Steal $20 Million to Build My Mansion

Yet another high-profile military official has been arrested in Nigeria on charges he stole from the country's defense budget.

Chief of Nigerian defence staff Air Chief Marshall Alex Badeh attend the commissioning ceremony of the "NNS Centenary", an offshore patrol vessel built by Chinese Shipbuilding and Industry Corporation (CSIC) for Nigerian Navy, on February 19, 2015 in Lagos.  Nigerian President Jonathan commissioned into the service of Nigerian Navy four patrol vessels to enhance maritime surveillance, protection of offshore resources and infrastructure. One of the vessels, a frigate was acquired from the US Coast Guard, and one of two others built by Chinese firm was donated by the Chinese government to its Nigerian counterpart.    AFP PHOTO/PIUS UTOMI EKPEI        (Photo credit should read PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP/Getty Images)
Chief of Nigerian defence staff Air Chief Marshall Alex Badeh attend the commissioning ceremony of the "NNS Centenary", an offshore patrol vessel built by Chinese Shipbuilding and Industry Corporation (CSIC) for Nigerian Navy, on February 19, 2015 in Lagos. Nigerian President Jonathan commissioned into the service of Nigerian Navy four patrol vessels to enhance maritime surveillance, protection of offshore resources and infrastructure. One of the vessels, a frigate was acquired from the US Coast Guard, and one of two others built by Chinese firm was donated by the Chinese government to its Nigerian counterpart. AFP PHOTO/PIUS UTOMI EKPEI (Photo credit should read PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP/Getty Images)
Chief of Nigerian defence staff Air Chief Marshall Alex Badeh attend the commissioning ceremony of the "NNS Centenary", an offshore patrol vessel built by Chinese Shipbuilding and Industry Corporation (CSIC) for Nigerian Navy, on February 19, 2015 in Lagos. Nigerian President Jonathan commissioned into the service of Nigerian Navy four patrol vessels to enhance maritime surveillance, protection of offshore resources and infrastructure. One of the vessels, a frigate was acquired from the US Coast Guard, and one of two others built by Chinese firm was donated by the Chinese government to its Nigerian counterpart. AFP PHOTO/PIUS UTOMI EKPEI (Photo credit should read PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP/Getty Images)

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari ousted his predecessor Goodluck Jonathan last year by promising he’d beat back Boko Haram extremists and restore order to Nigeria by cracking down on government misconduct.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari ousted his predecessor Goodluck Jonathan last year by promising he’d beat back Boko Haram extremists and restore order to Nigeria by cracking down on government misconduct.

He didn’t waste much time on the latter: Soon after being elected, Buhari announced that some $150 billion of state funds had gone missing in the past 10 years — and that he planned to track it down.

On Monday, those ongoing investigations put a high-ranking military officer squarely in their crosshairs when an Abuja court accused retired Nigerian defense chief Alex Badeh of stealing $20 million to build a mansion and a shopping mall in the capital. He was arraigned on 10 charges, including fraud and money laundering, and will be kept in police custody at least until Thursday when the judge will allow him to be released on bail. He is pleading not guilty on all charges. 

It’s a stunning downfall for Badeh, who headed Nigeria’s air force before he was tapped to lead Nigeria’s defense staff in January 2014 as Jonathan ramped up efforts to tackle Boko Haram in the country’s northeast. Badeh held that position when more than 200 schoolgirls were kidnapped from their boarding school in the town of Chibok, an attack that burst the group into Western consciousness and drew international attention to the military’s ineffectiveness at combatting the extremists. He also admitted shortly after the Chibok girls were kidnapped that he knew where they were but that he felt it would be too dangerous to launch a rescue operation.

Last June, Amnesty International named Badeh one of the Nigerian military officials potentially complicit in the deaths of 8,000 people in custody in Nigeria. The human rights group listed him as someone who likely either carried command responsibility for some of those deaths or at the very least knew about them and failed to report the abuse. The next month, he stepped down.

During his tenure, Badeh endorsed the execution of a group of soldiers who mutinied amid claims the military did not have enough equipment to fight the terrorist group. Turns out that criticism may have come as he was allegedly pocketing the money intended to buy new arms for his troops and using it to build a giant house in Abuja, or shortly after. 

The possibility that Badeh took $20 million pales in comparison to the roughly $2 billion that Buhari alleges was stolen from the defense budget. In December, Jonathan’s national security adviser, Sambo Dasuki, was charged with stealing $68 million — $50 million of which allegedly went to Jonathan’s People’s Democratic Party. Dasuki was accused of awarding phantom contracts in order to pocket the cash.

Buhari has also ordered investigations into dozens of top army generals he believes are involved in that $2 billion scandal.

Photo Credit: PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP/Getty Images

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