At the resumed trial of a former Chief of Defence Staff, CDS, Air Chief Marshal Alex S. Badeh, on Tuesday, the fourth prosecution witness, Mustapha Yerima gave Justice Okon E. Abang of the FederalHigh Court Abuja a blow-by-blow account of how he was paid the sum of N108million through Badeh’s company, Vetivo Nigeria Limited.
Yerima whose testimony started yesterday stated that, the process of the payment came through a third party.
According to Yerima,” the payment that came through a third party is as a result of the meeting between myself, Air Comodore Yushau (a retired Air Commodore and former director of finance and account) and Badeh. This was prior to my meeting with AirCommodore Yushau and Barrister Timothy Muje. At the meeting, Yushau introduced Timothy to me as the lawyer to Air Chief Marshall Badeh since he (Yushau) was retiring. He said I should transfer all the necessary documents to the lawyer (Timothy).’’
He stated that, “Yushau came to the said meeting with prepared Deed ofAssignment and Power of Attorney with his company’s name and another document transfering the title from Ryte Builders to Edile Construction Company. He was given a copy to sign and he did. He said he handed over to Timothy, the original Certificate of Occupancy, C of O, and the Deed ofAssignment.”
After the tranfer of the documents, Yerima claimed that he recieved the sum of N108 million.
’’I recieved an alert from one Vetivo Nigerian Limited. I called Badeh andhe confirmed that Vetivo NigeriaLimited was his and he instructed that the money be paid into my company’s account”, Yerima revealed.
He further narrated how Badeh out of fear changed his mind from the property that he earlier wanted to acquire for the construction of his shopping mall at Aminu Kano Crescent and opted for the one located at the Wuse 2 District of Abuja.
According to Yerima, when the transactions were no longer clear to him, and he was denied access to thePower of Attorney he had earlier given to Badeh and his men, he became agitated and decided to tell the EFCC all that he knew about Badeh and the property he acquired which costs about N1.8billion including the land.