Former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai has dropped a bombshell, claiming that he listened to an intercepted phone conversation in which National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu allegedly gave the order for his arrest.
The former governor made the startling revelation on Friday, February 13, during an interview on Arise Television’s Prime Time programme, openly admitting that someone tapped the NSA’s phone and passed the contents to him.
“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,” El-Rufai said.
He went further, accusing the government of routinely intercepting citizens’ phone calls without judicial approval.
“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,” he said.
The interview took a pointed turn when anchor Charles Aniagolu reminded El-Rufai that intercepting phone calls is a criminal offence.
The former governor did not dispute the point but maintained that the government engages in the same practice without consequences.
READ ALSO:Â El-Rufai Condemns Airport Arrest Attempt, Says Nigeria Must Outgrow Executive Overreach
The admission quickly caught the attention of the presidency. Temitope Ajayi, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, responded on X, zeroing in on the legal exposure created by El-Rufai’s own words.
“El-Rufai admitted on national television that someone tapped the phone of the NSA for him to listen to his conversation,” Ajayi wrote.
“When Charles Aniagolu, the interviewer, interjected that that was an illegal action, El-Rufai agreed to the illegality,” he continued.
The presidential aide then offered a prediction of what would follow.
“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,” Ajayi wrote.
The claim adds a volatile new dimension to the already heated standoff between El-Rufai and the federal government.
Just a day earlier, his lawyer Ubong Akpan alleged that Department of State Services operatives attempted to arrest the former governor at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport without a warrant and seized his passport after he returned from Cairo, Egypt.
Neither the office of the National Security Adviser nor the DSS had commented on El-Rufai’s phone tapping allegation at the time this report was published