A one- time director, Policy and Research, Nigerian Army, Major General Ishola Williams (Rtd), has said that the immediate past Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El–Rufai currently being held by the Directorate of State Services (DSS), is a security risk.

General Williams, who said this in reaction to the former governor’s claims that he hacked into the telephone line of the National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, to listen to his conversations, said the issue should not be taken lightly as this would have been responsible for troops being killed in ambushes laid by Boko Haram and Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP) insurgents.

El-Rufai, last week, told a bewildered nation on national television during an interview: “We found that it was the ICPC that procured the DSS to abduct me and hand me over to them.

“This is the modus operandi of ICPC that increasingly has become a personal tool of… Ribadu, who made the call and ordered that I must be in custody on that particular day. “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.” To General Williams: “We live in interesting times, as the Chinese will say.

“The statement by Mallam El-Rufai on Arise TV about being warned of an impending arrest for whatever reason has led to his being questioned and taken to court by the State Security Service. “The Legal Department of SSS ought to have advised this action because Mallam El-Rufai did not personally hack into the NSA telephone conversation.

He was warned by his moles or friends, who happened to break into the conversation. “Technically, at that level of the NSA, there are warning and protective measures by various means, including apps and algorithms for preventing hacking.

“In addition, the NSA must know over a period of time that his device is being monitored and be able to trace the monitor and block it.” Further, he said that the Federal Government has spent millions of Dollars on these technological gadgets, which ought to be safe and secure. “This leads to the conclusion that Mallam El-Rufai is about hacking to protect his moles in the system who are in a position to know without breaking into any conversation.

“The implication is that if the statement were true, the security of the NSA communication systems is not up to date, which I do not believe either. Charging him demonstrates to outsiders that our security system can easily be hacked and conversations listened to.

“Extending that weakness to the North East shows why Officers and men are killed in ambushes set up by Boko Haram and ISWAP, who have moles within the Military. “My conclusion is that nobody broke into the NSA conversation; therefore, friends of El Rufai working in a position to know warned him.

Security personnel who quoted those close to them said: “Those in the know claim both men, El-Rufai and Ribadu, shared a deep relationship. Under the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo, they were inseparable with certain key decisions that changed the permutations and trajectory of politics, particularly between 2006 and 2007,

coming from their anvil. Some say the fact that Dr. Peter Odili was replaced as the running mate of Umar Musa Yar’Adua, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP in the 2007 Presidential election, with Goodluck Jonathan had something to do with the duo, in part, and some influential members of that administration.