•As Security agents intensify wiretap of phone talks •Extend operations to US, UK, UAE, South Africa, Ghana
•It has to do with security – DHQ
Just as foreign currencies especially US Dollars
and British Pounds are common features in Nigeria’s daily financial
transactions, so is the number of international GSM lines in local
telephone conversations by state governors, ministers, top security
chiefs and several other Very Important Personalities, VIPs to avoid the
rising frequent wiretap of private discussions by the nation’s
intelligence operatives.
Saturday Sun gathered that the number of
political office holders and top government functionaries using foreign
telephone lines in Nigeria has in the past few months increased
geometrically due to an unprecedented acquisition of “spigot and
surveillance equipment by the intelligence agencies especially the
Department of State Security, DSS in the last two years to enhance their
ability to record, retrieve and analyse conversations of certain
persons under profile or surveillance.”
To safeguard their telephone
conversations from the reach of security agents, investigations reveal
that many serving state governors, current ministers, former governors, a
number of heads of federal parastatals and agencies as well as some
VIPs who are involved in national politics and who have the financial
means have resorted to using GSM lines used in United Kingdom, USA,
United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Ghana and others to make sensitive
telephone calls and discussions.
A serving state governor, who
confirmed he’s one of those who recently joined the trend, told Saturday
Sun that recent developments in the nation’s political arena have made
it expedient for him to join some of his colleaques “who have already
ported.”
“That (foreign GSM line) appears to be the safest way to
communicate with ourselves under the present hostile political
environment in our country. It’s only reasonable that I do as others
do”, the state chief executive who prefers not to be named for fear of
being misunderstood, stated.
If this class of foreign GSM line users
believe they are totally safe from security wiretap, they need to read
this. To beat their targets in the game, it was learnt that the
intelligence agencies have extended their tentacles to the US, UK, UAE,
South Africa, Ghana and others under the guise of counter-terrorism
efforts.
Findings reveal that a number of intelligence operatives
travel out of Nigeria from time to time to some of the identified
countries where they retrieve call logs and other data from the lines of
their targets with the aid of their foreign counterparts.
One of
the operatives involved in such overseas operations was, until recently,
an under-cover agent in a Federal Government-run media house. One of
his colleagues confided in one of our reporters that, “the move is a
justifiable security assignment but so far, it has been more successful
and easier in London (UK) than other jurisdictions.”
He said it’s
easy to get the Nigerian users of some United Kingdom GSM numbers
because “even though some of them are registered in the names of
proxies, technology often reveals the locations where such lines are
being used while the data collated on them confirm the true owners or
users.” Some of the UK operators, said to enjoy the patronage of
Nigerian political office holders and VIPs include T-mobile, Orange, 02,
Lebara and Vodafone.
When asked why security agencies have to
resort to monitoring phone discussions of political office holders, an
obviously stunned Director of Defence Information, DDI at the Defence
Headquarters in Abuja, Brig. Gen. Chris Olukolade was more anxious to
know why one of our correspondents wanted to know about such a sensitive
security issue than providing a direct answer.
“Who told you it is
DHQ that is monitoring telephone discussion of government officials and
VIPs and why do you think so? It has to do with security and DHQ is not
the only security agency in the country. So, you should find out who is
monitoring phone discussion and not conclude that DHQ is responsible”,
the Defence spokesman stated.
Nigeria has of late invested millions
of dollars to boost intelligence gathering of most of the nation’s
security agencies especially DSS, Defence Intelligence Agency, DIA and
Directorate of Military Intelligence, DMI. Contracts for the procurement
of most of the wiretap equipment have often gone to Israeli companies
because of the Jewish nation’s prowess in intelligence gathering.
One of the latest attempts to invade the privacy of citizens got mired
in controversy. The Federal Government was said to have secretly awarded
an Israeli firm, Elbit Systems, with headquarters in Haifa, a $40
million contract to help it spy on citizens’ computers and Internet
communications under the guise of intelligence gathering and national
security.
The House of Representatives has instituted a probe into
the award of the contract but the presidency, which is at the centre of
it, has kept mute.
Source: Sun
