Former governor of Kaduna, Nasir el-Rufai, has said that he accessed an intercepted phone conversation involving Nuhu Ribadu, national security adviser (NSA).
El-Rufai, in an interview on Prime Time, an Arise Television programme, said “someone tapped” Ribadu’s phone, allowing him to listen to the NSA allegedly instructing security operatives to effect his arrest.
He acknowledged the act’s illegality, adding that the government does it all the time.
“He made the call because we listened to their calls. The government thinks they are the only ones that listen to calls but we also have our ways. He made the call and gave the order,” he said.
“Someone tapped his phone. The government listens to our calls all the time without a court order. Someone tapped his phone and told us that he gave the order.”
The comment has elicited a response from Temitope Ajayi, senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity.
“El-rufai admitted on national television that someone tapped the phone of the NSA for him to listen to his conversation,” the president’s spokesperson wrote on X.
“When Charles Aniagolu, the interviewer, interjected that that was an illegal action, el-Rufai agreed to the illegality.
“By the time he is picked up to produce the person who illegally tapped the NSA’s phone, he would say President Tinubu is a ‘tyrant’ and persecuting him.”
