Again the country has been thrown into another cycle of mourning by the brutal murder of Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh (rtd). There was a report at press time that the police detectives had arrested some suspects on the curious murder some actually reported as suspected assassination. This happened despite a retinue of security operatives that usually accompanied him. In the lethal attack, which occurred near a village called Gitata along Keffi-Bade road, he was the sole victim.This tragedy is too much for a country yet to be cured of mourning of its men in arms killed in combat by the Boko Haram insurgents barely a month ago. Indeed, the public psyche is badly hurt and shaken on account of these endless and avoidable killings.
The late Badeh had served the country meritoriously for over a generation. Born January 10, 1957, in Adamawa State, he was a member of 21 Regular Course of the Nigerian Defence Academy and Course 14 of the National War College in 1977 and 2005 respectively. Also, he attended training at the Vance Air Force Base in the United States. He served in the Air Force for 38 years in the course of which he became the Chief of Air Staff and later Chief of Defence Staff. Marshal Badeh is credited with initiating the Optimizing Local Engineering (OLE 1 and 2) which focused on developing indigenous Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and weapon systems.
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