The witness said SSS was aware Mr El-Rufai was going to appear on Arise TV for the interview ahead of time.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The first prosecution witness who goes by APC began testifyijg when the court resumed from the breka.
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 got 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.
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 before a passport is stamped, SSS operatives must ssee 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.
