A prosecution witness on Monday told the Federal High Court in Abuja how the State Security Service (SSS) uncovered Nasir El-Rufai’s alleged involvement in the tapping of National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu’s phone call. The video clip of a television interview where Mr El-Rufai confessed to listening to Mr Ribadu’s intercepted phone call was played during Monday’s proceedings.
The witness, codenamed APC and shielded with a screen from public view during proceedings, for security reasons, said SSS launched an investigation after monitoring an interview he granted on an Arise Television’s live programme in February.
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The judge, Joyce Abdulmalik, earlier granted SSS’ application for witness protection measures, allowing APC to testify without being seen by members of the court’s audience and withhold sensitive personal information while testifying.
The judge granted the prayer after overruling an objection from defence lawyers to the request.
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The SSS filed the phone tapping charges against Mr El-Rufai in February, following his claim on a live television programme that he intercepted NSA, Mr Ribadu’s phone call.
The charges followed Mr El-Rufai’s claim in an interview on an Arise Television programme in February that he, with someone, intercepted NSA Ribadu’s phone call.
In the call, he said the NSA directed security operatives to detain him. He linked the alleged directive to an attempted arrest at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport on 12 February after his return from Cairo, Egypt.
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On 23 April, SSS arraigned him before the court, but he pleaded not guilty to all five counts.
PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported that the Judge, in a ruling on Monday granted the former governor bail in the sum of N100 million, after which proceedings were paused till 1 p.m. for resumption of trial.
First prosecution witness testified
The first prosecution witness, who goes by APC, began testifying when the court resumed from the break.
Led in evidence by prosecution lawyer Oluwole Aladedoye, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), the witness said he knew the defendant.
“He was the former FCT minister and former governor of Kaduna State. His name is Nasir El-Rufai,” he said.
He hinted that he had received information that Mr El-Rufai was going to appear on the Arise TV programme ahead of time.
“My Lord, the service got information that the defendant would appear on Arise TV Prime Time Show,” he said.
He said operatives watched the programme and he later reported the outcome to his director.
“I told them that there was a confessional statement where the defendant said he tapped the conversation of the National Security Adviser,” the witness said.
He added that the video was later transferred to a flash drive to preserve its integrity and then kept in the case file. The witness noted that his “director later reported the matter to the management of the agency.”
When the prosecution lawyer applied for the flash drive and a certificate of compliance to be admitted as exhibits, Mr El-Rufai’s lawyer Paul Erokoro, also a SAN, said the defence was not objecting to the application.
Judge Abdulmalik subsequently admitted the flash drive and certificate of compliance as Exhibits A and A1, respectively.
Video of El-Rufai interview played in court
After the exhibits were admitted, the Prosecution applied that the video of the interview be played in the open court.
Mr El-Rufai, dressed in a blue agbada and seated in the dock, watched the interview alongside others during the proceedings.
The video showed Mr El-Rufai speaking with Arise TV anchor Charles Aniagolu.
In the video, When Mr Aniagolu asked about the alleged incident at the airport, Mr El-Rufai narrated what happened.
“I came out of the plane and a young man came to me and said, ‘I am DSS and they would want to meet with me in our office.’ I asked him for a letter of invitation, and he said their boss had it in the office. I said okay,” he said in the video.
“As I was going, I saw more people coming and surrounding me. As I moved forward, two officers came again and asked me to go to their office.”
In the video, Mr El-Rufai said he told the officers that if he did not see a letter of invitation, he would not follow them, but the officers insisted. “I told them that even the president cannot tell me what to do,” he said.
Mr El-Rufai also said that before a passport is stamped, SSS operatives must see it. “But the DSS operative who stamped my passport did not say anything. I said to myself that if there was any issue, the SSS official would not have stamped my passport,” he said.
“After that, they continued following me and about 50 DSS….tried to arrest me, but the people who came to receive me at the airport said they would not allow them to take me.”
He said the operatives later demanded to see his passport, but one of his aides collected it from him and the officers snatched it from his aide.
Mr El-Rufai described the use of security agencies against him as troubling.
“ EFCC had invited me before I travelled and I told them that I would return,” he said, adding that he knew Mr
Ribadu instructed SSS to arrest him because someone tapped his phone conversation.
Mr Aniagolu told him that phone tapping was wrong, but Mr El-Rufai insisted that “we listened to their call, someone tapped the phone conversation and told us that he gave the order.”
“The National Security Adviser told the SSS that I must be abducted today. When you try to take a person without a valid order, it is not an arrest, it is an abduction,” he said.
Mr Aniagolu suggested that the officers might have been trying to compel him to honour an invitation. However, Mr El-Rufai replied in the video that there was no law requiring an invitation to be honoured the same day.
Continuing in the video, Mr El-Rufai said he had 16 years of public service and had never taken a bribe. “I have told Nigerians to come forward and prove me wrong,” he said.
Mr El-Rufai also alleged in the interview that his prosecution was politically motivated and orchestrated by the federal government through his successor. He claimed investigators had interrogated several persons without finding evidence against him and accused the administration of becoming “desperate.”
As Mr El-Rufai watched the video with rapt attention in court, he occasionally raised his head and at one point adjusted his agbada.
Judge Abdulmalik also followed the video closely.
At another point in the interview, Mr El-Rufai said “you do not investigate people by abducting them” in a “civilised country,” adding that the case against him was linked to pressure on him to support President Bola Tinubu’s second term bid.
He also said he was not afraid of scrutiny because he had documentation of his activities in office.
As the video continued to play, Mr El-Rufai at some points relaxed in the dock, shaking his head.
The video later stopped due to technical issues. Following the interruption, the prosecution lawyer applied for an adjournment to produce a clearer version of the recording.
The judge subsequently adjourned the matter until Tuesday for continuation of trial.
Mr El-Rufai is an ally turned critic of President Bola Tinubu. He backed Mr Tinubu, then the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to win the 2023 presidential election. At some point during the presidential campaign, Mr Tinubu publicly persuaded Mr El-Rufai, then outgoing governor of Kaduna State, to forgo his plan to retire into private life and take up roles in his government if he won the presidential poll.
The former allies parted ways after a botched attempt by President Tinubu to appoint Mr El-Rufai minister, with the Senate refusing to clear him citing security reasons.
Mr El-Rufai is facing a series of cases in Kaduna, which stemmed from his activities as governor.
One of the judges overseeing his trial in Kaduna denied him bail last month and ordered him to remain in the custody of the prosecution agency, the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC). The ruling, until reversed by the judge or set aside by a higher court, would effectively keep Mr El-Rufai in detention event if he is granted bail by other judges in the the other ongoing proceedings.
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