Department of State Services (DSS), statutory known as the State Security Service (SSS), Nigeria’s premier domestic intelligence agency has reportedly acquired spyware that enables it illegally wiretap and detains citizens.
According to a report by The International Centre for Investigative Reporting (The ICIR), court filings and victim testimonies reviewed by it in the course its investigation revealed how spyware equipment acquired by Nigeria’s secret police for “national security” has become an instrument for illegal wiretapping.
In Nigeria, unlawful phone tapping and wiretapping are serious crimes as they violate privacy rights unless authorized by a judge.
The ICIR, an independent, non-profit news agency that promotes transparency and accountability through robust and objective investigative reporting in its report said the DSS, targets are monitored in secret, picked up, and hauled into horrible detention camps without trial dates or accountability.
Section 37 of the 1999 Constitution protects the privacy of citizens, their homes, correspondence, and telephone conversations.
But in exceptions, under the Constitution and the Lawful Interception of Communications Regulations 2019, authorized agencies (like the DSS and Police) can only intercept communications with a valid court order or warrant for reasons of national security or public safety.
Here is the full The ICIR report:
FIRST, the phones pinged. Then the knocks came. For suspects apprehended by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) since 2021 and taken to the military detention facility at Wawa, a border town in Niger State, the pattern was identical: strange calls, dropped signals, then arrests without warrants.
Court filings and victim testimonies reviewed by The ICIR in this investigation reveal how spyware equipment acquired by Nigeria’s secret police for “national security” has become an instrument for illegal wiretapping.
Targets are monitored in secret, picked up, and hauled into horrible detention camps without trial dates or accountability.
He sounded like a fan from America
On his way to Abuja from Abia State, a social media critic, Saheed Jamilu, got a call from a strange number.
The caller claimed to be a fan of his based in the United States who once lived in Abia.
“He hailed me and professed love for the South-East,” Jamilu said in a viral Facebook video. The caller later advised him to “soft-pedal” criticism of leaders, including the Ogun State governor, Dapo Abiodun.
Thirty minutes later, Jamilu checked the number.
Curiously, it carried a Nigerian code, not that of the U.S.
“It occurred to me something was fishy. I shared the number with my lawyer for verification. We later confirmed the caller was from the DSS,” Jamilu said.
He wondered why the secret police would chase critics instead of kidnappers holding hostages in forests across Nigeria.
Stories like his have flooded the social media space in Nigeria.
Activists and content creators, including the popular VDM (Very Dark Man), allege DSS surveillance and threats of arrest.
Where is ‘Blood’?
For lawyer Pius Awoke, 49, student Onyibe Chinonso, 34, and builder Nwocha Chinedu, 43, it was not an online alarm.
It was years of unspeakable horrors in detention.
On a wet Thursday morning in June 2021, along the Abuja-Lokoja highway, their Enugu-bound Sienna was flagged down near the Murtala Mohammed Bridge close to Lokoja.
Soldiers manning a checkpoint said the DSS had ordered a stop for a suspected IPOB (Indigenous People of Biafra) member.
Fifteen minutes later, plainclothes operatives arrived in an unmarked SUV. Among the eight passengers in the intercepted Sienna, the trio were ordered out and forced to surrender their phones.
Awoke recalled: “One operative brought out a paper and started dialling numbers with each phone. ‘Where is Blood?’ they barked, searching for a contact.”
Chinonso said they repeated the dialling three times and found nothing. After body and vehicle searches, the operatives began beating them.
“They kept beating and asking us ‘who is Blood?’ while we showed ID cards. After five hours of torture, they handcuffed us and took us to their Lokoja office,” Chinonso recalled.
The next day, they were ferried to DSS headquarters, Abuja, with face masks, phones and money seized. They were dumped in an underground cell called “Basement-2.”
Chinonso said one of the operatives, Jonah Daniel, urinated in a bottle and sprinkled it on their heads. “After that, our legs were chained together. We were kept incommunicado in a dark, cold, unventilated cell for two days,” he said.
Torture at the ‘Hell’ called Wawa
Wawa Military Cantonment in Borgu LGA, Niger State, near Benin Republic, is used for training and operations.
However, some ex-detainees told The ICIR that their ordeals in the hands of the DSS ended with detention at Wawa, describing it as “hell.”
For full details go to https://www.icirnigeria.org/how-dss-spyware-acquisition-enables-illegal-wiretaps-and-detentions/
