Salisu Abdullahi, a retired air commodore and former director of finance and account, Nigerian Air Force headquarters, who is testifying against Alex Badeh, former Chief of Air Staff, has told an Abuja High Court that the person who was responsible for changing the sum of N558 million monthly into US dollar for Badeh was actually working directly for the former Chief of Air Staff.
The witness told the court that he was not privy to the actual process of preparing the budget, but merely makes inputs as a Director of Finance.
According to Abdullahi, the officer in charge of the said conversion of naira into dollar for Badeh was ordered to be brought to his (Abdullahi’s) office where his main responsibility will be to change the said sum on a monthly basis and hand it over to Abdullahi who takes it over to his principal.
The witness told the court that the office of the deputy director of budget that was in charge of preparing the Nigerian Air Force budget.
Abdullahi, who told the court that the deputy director of finance was the one in charge of the allocations in the office of the Directorate of Finance, Nigerian Air Force headquarters, said he was merely overseeing the allocation of finances on a broader base, and not directly under any office in the Air Force.
The case was adjourned till April 19, for continuation of trial.
