By Samuel Ogundipe
Two years after PREMIUM TIMES revealed that four South-South states were running illegal surveillance programmes to intrude into privacy of their residents and target opposition, latest fi ndings by this newspaper suggest that the states have not backed down on the controversial operation. Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers States were named in the 2015 investigation that uncovered how governors in the four states, which are specifi cally located in the Niger Delta, procured cutting-edge spying devices to play the role of Big Brother over residents of their respective states, especially politically active opponents.
Rivers State then under Rotimi Amaechi was the fi rst state to deploy surveillance equipment. Former Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan also ran the programme in Delta until the end of his administration in 2015, and there are indications that he handed it over to his appointed successor, Ifeanyi Okowa. In Akwa Ibom, former Governor Godswill Akpabio deployed the programme in Uyo, the state capital. Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State was exposed as running perhaps the most ruthless of the spying policies at the time. Of the four states, three have had change of leadership, while Mr. Dickson is now in his second term. Of the three governors that vacated offi ce, only Mr. Amaechi of Rivers handed over to an opposition candidate.
PREMIUM TIMES gathered from offi cial sources in Akwa Ibom, under Emmanuel Udom, and Rivers, under Nyesom Wike, that the two states still have their respective programmes in place, but there were no immediate signs that Mr. Okowa still spies on residents in Delta. National Security Agency sources said none of the states received approval to deploy the surveillance equipment. Th e subsisting policy of the Nigerian government requires that any public or private organisation with an intention to purchase surveillance equipment must secure End User Certifi cate from the NSA before doing so.
Th e unrestrained exploits of the politicians underscore the susceptibility of private phone conversations of Nigerians. Th e revelations, our previous report said, highlight how easy it could be for individuals and organisations – with enough fi nancial and political clout— to acquire and deploy hi-tech hacking tools and illegally collect private data from targeted Nigerians. Section 12 of the Cybercrime Act (2015) prescribes a prison term of not more than two years, a fi ne of N5 million or both for anyone convicted of the illegal surveillance activities of the governors. Th e police at state and federal level deny knowledge of all the intrusive operations by governors. “We’re not aware of such,” the Nigeria Police spokesperson, Jimoh Special Report Moshood, said.
“If any citizen has genuine complaints about possible intrusion on his or her privacy, such individual should contact the nearest police station”. “We have our technical means to stay above criminals, but we’re not tapping people’s private conversations and the police will not condone such,” he added. Rivers Former Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, who is now Nigeria’s transport minister, was the fi rst Nigerian politician to demand a Circle 3G’s telephone tracking technology as far back as 2010. In a June 30, 2010 off er letter, signed by the then Secretary to the State Government, Sovens Okari, the Amaechi administration invited V&V Limited to supply the gadgets for N2.3 billion. But the deal failed after the relationship between Mr. Amaechi and V&V Limited became strained. When contacted at the time, Mr. Amaechi said he was unaware of the project.
He argued that there was no record of fund releases for the project. Two years earlier, Mr. Amaechi, now Minister of Transport, had picked up a similar gadget, the C4i (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and Intelligence) technology deployed by an Israeli military security fi rm, MPD Systems. Mr. Amaechi had described the C4i as a tool to aid federal security in combating militancy and kidnappings within the state. But it was more than that. C4i was considered the perfect federal cover under which Mr. Amaechi’s political spying was carried out. But Ibim Semenitari, Mr. Amaechi’s Commissioner for Information, told PREMIUM TIMES in the previous report that the administration did not on its own deploy the tools to spy on anyone.
She cited Mr. Amaechi’s political fallout with former President Goodluck Jonathan as a clear hindrance for the governor. “Given the well-publicised infractions between the Rivers State Government and the GEJ (Goodluck Ebele Jonathan)-led federal Government the state would not have been able to embark on the issues raised without the security agencies clamping down on its offi cials,” Ms. Semenitari said. She admitted that the state government was running the programme, but said it secured the authorisation of the NSA under former President Umar Yar’Adua. She also said the program was being run by a joint-team of police and the State Security Service in the state. Latest Recent fi ndings by PREMIUM TIMES during a recent visit to PortHarcourt suggest that Mr. Wike continued running the surveillance programme when he came to offi ce in May 2015.
A source close to the administration said the program was still running as at April 2017, but said it was on a lower scale. “Governor Amaechi started the surveillance policy and the Wike government inherited it when he came to the offi ce,” the source said. “But I think it has now been scaled down signifi cantly.” Th e source said the programme had helped combat criminal activities in the state, adding that it was the reason behind its procurement. But Commissioner for Information, Austin Tam-George, said the state does not intercept residents’ phone conversations. “As a matter of ideology, this state does carry out illegal surveillance against residents.” Mr. Tam-George said. “It would be unfair to conclude otherwise.”
\(Mr. Tam-George was interviewed in his capacity as commissioner. Th e interview was conducted before he resigned last week.) Similarly, Rivers police spokesperson, Omoni Nnamdi, denied knowledge of any surveillance program. “We only have joint patrol that includes the Nigerian Army and others,” Mr. Nnamdi said. “But I’m not sure I know of any spy programme or that I could confi rm it.” David Iyofor, media aide to Mr. Amaechi, said his principal left the equipment for Mr. Wike. “It was a state property, not Amaechi’s own,” Mr. Iyofor said. “So, all security agencies that were involved can confi rm that the state still has it.”
Bayelsa Mr. Dickson’s hacking activities were exposed by PREMIUM TIMES after the company that supplied Bayelsa State government’s hacking tools was hacked. Hacking Team, notorious for equipping governments with tools to hack computers and phones, was hacked in July 2015 and 415 gigabytes of internal data leaked to the public. Documents seen by PREMIUM TIMES show that the Dickson administration paid Hacking Team N98 million to carry out Internet attacks, in what appears to be the most ambitious hacking project by a Nigerian state government, the earlier report said.
Th e contract was signed in late 2013, leaked Hacking Team’s internal documents showed. Mr. Dickson’s programme was not known even to the NSA until after the publication of the leaked documents. Only the federal government has the power to intercept communications or act to suspend rights in the face of national security. Latest Th ere is no evidence anywhere that the Dickson administration disposed its hacking equipment. Offi cials also preferred to stick to earlier narratives that it never had one. PREMIUM TIMES’ eff orts to get updates from offi cials with knowledge about the Bayelsa State’s surveillance activities were unsuccessful.
In Yenagoa, some offi cials that initially agreed to an off -record conversation in person later backed out at the eleventh hour, citing the sensitive nature of our investigation. Boma Spero-Jack, Mr. Dickson’s special adviser on security, however, restated the administration’s earlier claim, despite overwhelming evidence, that it never had any intrusive surveillance equipment in place. “We’re not interested in such materials,” Mr. Spero-Jack said of hacking tools. “We’re not in such business.” He said “eavesdropping or illegally obtaining people’s conversation is illegal.” He said, like most states in the country, Bayelsa has a joint-security committee in place, which he said Bayelsa had been using to deal with crimes across the state.
“We have a joint-security group of police, Army and SSS. “We have equipment for tracking of vehicles and we have equipment for distress calls,” Mr. Spero-Jack said. He said his offi ce oversees running of the equipment.
