Nigeria’s active 120 million GSM
subscribers need to know this: The
Nigeria Police, the Department of State
Services [DSS] and the Nigerian
Communications Satellite Limited
[NIGCOMSAT] are, on behalf of the
Nigerian government, possibly hacking
your phones and listening in to your
conversations.
The three state agencies are able to do
this with the aid of an over N11 billion
sophisticated equipment procured and
installed for them by President
Goodluck Jonathan.
Knowing what Nigerians are discussing
over the telephone was too important a
necessity for Mr. Jonathan that he
awarded two different contracts for the
same purpose in less than two months
interval.
On August 31, 2010, less than six
months after he became acting
president, Mr. Jonathan awarded an
approximately N6billion contract to an
Israeli-owned but Abuja-based security
firm, V & V Nigeria Limited, for the
“Procurement of strategic GSM Tracking
System for the Nigeria Police Force and
expansion/upgrade of the existing
system with the DSS”.
The project, awarded to the contractor
by the Ministry of Police Affairs, was
jointly hosted by the Nigeria Police and
Nigeria Communication Satellite Limited
(NIGCOMSAT), under the Nigeria Police
Reform Programme.
Less than two months after – October
21, 2010 – another N2.61 billion
contract was awarded by the same
Ministry of Police Affairs “for the
procurement of Strategic GSM Tracking
and Interception Systems for the
Department of State Services, under the
Nigeria Police Reform”.
This other contract, which appears a
duplicate of the first, was awarded to a
British security firm, Gamma TSE
Limited, which, according to the
information on its website,
“manufactures highly specialized
surveillance vehicles and integrated
surveillance systems, helping
government agencies collect data and
communicate it to key decision-makers
for timely decisions to be made”.
The two clearly similar projects were
however neither budgeted for nor listed
among contracts approved by the
Federal Executive Council (FEC) in
2010. They were also not captured in
the government’s budget
implementation reports for that year.
There is also no indication that the
contracts complied with Nigeria’s public
procurement law, which requires
competitive bidding for government
contracts of that magnitude.
Yet there was a separate project in the
2010 budget by the Nigeria Police Force
(not the Ministry of Police Affairs) for
“the procurement of GSM interception
and tracking equipment installed in 10
configured vehicles (security/criminal
intelligence)” for which N2.5billion was
budgeted.
It is not clear whether this other project
was executed at the time, but it was
also not captured in the budget
implementation report as well as FEC
approvals for the year.
Insiders at the State Security Service,
the Nigerian Police and the NIGCOMSAT
said while Gamma TSE delivered on the
contract awarded to it, they were not
sure that V & V, linked to a top
politician from the South-South,
performed satisfactorily.
Gamma TSE could not be reached for
comments. Repeated telephone calls to
its London office were neither answered
nor returned.
V & V also declined to comment when
contacted by PREMIUM TIMES. The
official, who answered the call made to
the company’s Abuja office, directed all
enquiries on the project to the Ministry
of Police Affairs.
But the spokesperson for the Ministry of
Police Affairs, James Odaudu, also
declined comments, just like his
counterpart at NIGCOMSAT, Sonny
Aragba-Akpore. Both officials said they
should not be expected to divulge
details about security-related
installations.
Details about these new surveillance
contracts emerged about 22 months
after PREMIUM TIMES exposed a similar
$40 million surveillance contract the
administration secretly, also in open
violation of lawful contracting
procedures, awarded to an Israeli firm,
Elbit Systems, with headquarters in
Haifa.
At the time, Nigerian rights activists
considered the project one of the most
far-reaching policies ever designed in
the country’s history to invade the
privacy of citizens.
The clandestine programme allows the
government spy on citizens’ computers
and Internet communications and
emails under the guise of intelligence
gathering and national security.
Embarrassed by the widespread
national outrage that arose after this
newspaper exclusively exposed the
secret contract, the presidency had
summoned the management of Elbit
Systems for a meeting to explain why
the contract should not be revoked after
it allegedly breached a confidential
clause in the contract.
In May 2013, the House of
Representatives asked the federal
government to suspend the contract,
saying it was awarded in breach of the
Fiscal Responsibility Act and that the
deployment of such spy equipment
would violate citizens’ constitutional
rights.
The House then ordered the immediate
suspension of the project to allow its
Committees on Information and
Computer Technology, Human Rights,
and National Security, to conduct an
inquiry.
The House is however yet to make the
outcome of its enquiry public, and the
project has since gone ahead.
Intelligence sources say the Internet
Spy device has since come alive.
The spying on telephone and Internet
communications of citizens is
continuing despite the country not
having any law in place to regulate
such undertakings by the nation’s
security agencies.
The Cybercrime Bill 2014, which allows
a measure of communication
interception, is yet to be passed into
law by the National Assembly.
Part 3 Section 22 of the Bill, which
deals with Interception of electronic
communications, says: “Where there are
reasonable grounds to suspect that the
content of any electronic
communication is reasonably required
for the purposes of a criminal
investigation or proceedings, a Judge
may on the basis of information on
oath: (a) order a service provider,
through the application of technical
means to collect, record, permit or
assist competent authorities with the
collection or recording of content data
associated with specified
communications transmitted by means
of a computer system; or (b) authorize
a law enforcement officer to collect or
record such data through application or
technical means.”
However, the bill, initiated by the
presidency, was passed in December by
the Senate but it only scaled second
reading in the House of Representatives
on Tuesday and was referred to the
House committees on justice and
information for further scrutiny.
When eventually passed by both
chambers, it would be harmonised and
then sent to the President for assent.

like i always say bar sentiments in your respective comments
...............................................Thanks

See no EVILL

Hear no EVLL

Say no Evil

Then you have nothing to be scared about

i will procure my own equipment to make my phone&pc untappable

sai buhari for all i care

Pictures or I don't believe. What about Buhari spurning of the courts and the APC FOI-phobia?