A Federal High Court in Abuja has heard explosive testimony that former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, admitted on national television that he intercepted the phone conversations of National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, a that sits at the very heart of the criminal case the Department of State Services is building against him.
The admission, according to the prosecution's second witness, was not made in a closed room or in a leaked document. It was made on air, in a television studio, in front of cameras, and the witness says he was right there when it happened.
Deji Adeyanju, a civil society activist subpoenaed to testify in the trial, told the court on Tuesday that he was present at the same television station on February 16, waiting for his own scheduled interview, when El-Rufai appeared on camera and made the statements that would later lead to his prosecution.
Led in evidence by prosecution counsel, Oluwole Aladedoye (SAN), Adeyanju recounted what he heard the former governor say during the broadcast.
"We listened to the conversations of the NSA," he quoted El-Rufai as saying in the course of the television interview.
The prosecution played a video recording of the interview in open court. Adeyanju confirmed it was the same interview he had witnessed at the studio.
El-Rufai is standing trial before Justice Joyce Abdulmalik on charges brought by the DSS, alleging that he contravened the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Amendment Act of 2024 and the Nigerian Communications Act of 2003 by intercepting Ribadu's phone conversations, compromising public safety, threatening national security, and instilling a reasonable apprehension of insecurity among Nigerians.
Adeyanju told the court that following the interview, the DSS invited him for questioning and asked him to explain what he had witnessed at the television studio.
He said he informed investigators that he was present when El-Rufai made the statements on air, and that when pressed further during the original broadcast, the ex-governor clarified that someone else had carried out the actual phone tapping and had passed the information on to him.
That nuance became a central point during cross-examination by El-Rufai's defence counsel, Paul Erokoro (SAN).
Erokoro pressed Adeyanju on the precise language El-Rufai used, seeking to draw a clear distinction between intercepting phone calls and merely receiving intercepted information.
Adeyanju acknowledged under cross-examination that he did not hear El-Rufai specifically say he hacked Ribadu's phone lines, only that he heard him say, "We listened to the conversations of the NSA."
When Erokoro asked whether the witness knew the means through which the NSA makes calls, and whether he would be surprised to learn that DSS investigators had not asked Ribadu which of his devices was allegedly compromised, Adeyanju said those were not his business.
The prosecution also tendered an official gazette, which the defence did not object to, and which Justice Abdulmalik admitted into evidence.
Justice Abdulmalik adjourned further hearing to Wednesday.
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