A coalition of civil society and public interests organizations under the aegis of Campaign for Sustainable Democracy and Rights (CSDR) have demanded the investigation, arrest and prosecution of the Kaduna State former Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, and others over his self confessed crime of illegally tapping the phone of the National Security Adviser(NSA), Nuhu Ribadu.
The group stated that monitoring Ribadu’s conversations during the discharge of his official duties amounts to a breach of the Cybercrimes (Provision, Prevention, Etc.) Act 2015 and a subversion of national security.
In a statement released on Sunday, the coalition convener and co-convener, Nelson Ekujumi, and Shola Omolola, it expressed disbelief, anger, pain and trauma just like millions of Nigerians and people all over the world by the self confession of El-Rufai on a national TV programme that he and others listens illegally to the phone conversation of the national security adviser Nuhu Ribadu.
According to the press statement, “We are shocked and traumatized by the self confession on national TV programme of Mr El-Rufai to this act of criminality and subversion of national security”.
The coalition went further to assert that it’s a known fact that in Nigeria just like it is globally, “The tapping of citizens’ phone conversations is regulated by a combination of constitutional rights, statutory acts, and specific subsidiary regulations that empower law enforcement to monitor communications under specific circumstances”.
Section 37 of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, guarantees the privacy of citizens, their homes, correspondence, telephone conversations and telegraphic communications.
However, section 45 of the same constitution, qualifies the right to privacy, allowing the state to restrict this right through laws that are “reasonably justifiable in a democratic society” for reasons of defense, public safety, public order or to protect the rights of others.
As a country governed by laws, pursuant to the Nigerian Communications Act 2003, authorized agencies (such as the Office of the National Security Adviser, State Security Service, and Nigeria Police Force) must obtain a warrant from a judge of the Federal High Court to intercept communications.
However, interceptions without a warrant is allowed in urgent, limited situations—such as immediate danger of death/injury, national security threats, or organized crime—but the agency must apply for a warrant within 48 hours.
Again under the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc.) Act 2015 Section 39: Authorizes law enforcement to compel service providers to intercept, collect, or record the content and traffic data of specified communications if there are reasonable grounds to suspect that a crime is being committed.
According to same section, unauthorized interception of electronic communications is a criminal offense, carrying penalties of fines and/or imprisonment.
Therefore as a coalition of groups made up of Nigerians, following from the above citations of relevant sections of the law, we are at a loss to rationalize “Where in the 1999 constitution of Nigeria as amended, Nasir El-Rufai derived the powers to commit Cybercrime and subvert national security with others that he must be immediately arrested to name, investigated and prosecuted according to law?
The coalition also stated that, “The arrest and investigation for prosecution for this crime of subversion of national security by Mr Nasir El-Rufai and his cohorts, might be the sealant to plugging the gaping hole in our security challenges occasioned by terrorism and banditry for which they could have been illegally tapping the NSA phone conversations and leaking sensitive security information to terrorists and bandits to continue to unleash havoc on Nigerians”.
