Rude Awakening As Former Nigerian Defense Chief, Alex Badeh, Is Shot Dead

A former Defense Chief, Air Chief Marshal Alex Sabundu Badeh (rtd), was Tuesday night 18th December shot dead in his vehicle along the Abuja-Keffi.

He was said to be returning from his farm at Keffi.

The information was announced in a tweet from the official Twitter handle of the Nigeria Air Force Director of Public Relations, Ibikunle Daramola, seen below.

It is with a heavy heart that I regretfully announce the unfortunate demise of former Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, who died today, 18 Dec 18, from gunshot wounds sustained when his vehicle was attacked while returning from his farm along Abuja-Keffi Road

— Air Commodore Ibikunle Daramola (@KunleDaramola3) December 18, 2018

A further statement added, “On behalf of officers, airmen and airwomen of the Nigerian Air Force, the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Abubakar, commiserates with the family of the late former Chief of Defence Staff over this irreparable loss. We pray that the Almighty God grants his soul eternal rest.”

Mr Badeh, the 18th Chief of Defense Staff, was curiously shot and killed on the 18th of December. He would have been 62 in three weeks, on the 10 January 2019.

He was first appointed Chief of Air Staff in October 2012 by former President Goodluck Jonathan and in April 2014 elevated him to Chief of Defense Staff – the apex military position in Nigeria, until his retirement in July 2015 by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Mr Badeh, a Christian from the commercial city of Mubi in Adamawa State, was known to have put up a spirited fight against the Islamic terrorist group, Boko Haram. The militants eventually attacked his home town in November 2014, burning down the Marshall’s family home, tried to kill his family members (who were not in the house at the time) and occupied and renamed Mubi the ‘Madinatul Islam’ (the city of Islam), until their eventual sacking in February 2015.

Before his death Marshall Badeh was being prosecuted by the current government for an alleged N3.9 billion fraud while in office.

Adamawa State has been a hotbed of both Boko Haram and killer herdsmen terrorist activities.

The assassination of the top defense chief is sure to disquiet the Nigerian elite class who have largely been unaffected by terror and killings across the country into an urgent awakening to come together and find lasting solutions to the pervasive insecurity in the land.

Worried about the situation of things in Nigeria, Senator Ben Murray-Bruce [PDP, Baylesa East] said, “Are we so caught up in APC versus PDP that we are don’t notice Nigeria is failing right before our eyes? Soldiers being killed by terrorists at an alarming rate. Prominent Nigerians are assassinated or kidnapped and killed. Whole States taken over by bandits. What is happening?”