Nasir El-Rufai, a former governor of Kaduna State, has disclosed that he and others listen to the telephone conversations of National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, through an individual who tapped the Nigerian security chief’s phone.

“Nuhu made the call and made the order that I must be in custody yesterday. (I know) he made the call because we listen to their calls; the government thinks they’re the only ones that listen to calls, but we also have our ways. He made the call; he gave the order. Someone tapped his phone and told me,” Mr El-Rufai said.

He said this during an interview on Arise Television Friday night while recounting his experience with operatives of the State Security Service (SSS) at Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja.

When told by the Arise television presenter that tapping the NSA’s phone was an illegal act, Mr El-Rufai responded, “I know, but the government does it all the time, they listen to our calls all the time without court order. But someone tapped his phone and told us that he gave the order.”

He noted that his lawyers had informed the EFCC that he was on his annual vacation, and would honour the commission’s invitation whenever he returned to the country.

“I want to add something because my lawyer issued a statement after that (incident) mentioning EFCC; I want to say it very clearly that it wasn’t the EFCC. It was the DSS; but the DSS were procured to adopt me by the ICPC that has never communicated with me ever. The EFCC had written to me while I was away, they said they ‘would like to have a chat with you over certain issues,’ and I replied; my lawyers replied that I was not in the country.”

“So, it wasn’t the EFCC, but my lawyer thought it was the EFCC, subsequently we found out that it was the ICPC that procured the DSS to abduct me, then handover to them; and this is a modus operandi of the ICPC that increasingly has become a personal tool of Nuhu Ribadu,” he added.

He, however, commended the EFCC, saying the commission had shown itself to be more professional, adding that he would honour the anti-graft agency’s invitation on Monday, February 16.

Mr El-Rufai further revealed that the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission wrote a letter to him on Thursday inviting him for questioning on Friday, February 13.

“Yesterday, around 5:00 p.m., the ICPC finally did the right thing; not the DSS that tried to abduct me; by bringing a letter to my house to say ‘we want to see you by Friday the 13th. But my lawyer wrote back to them that I wasn’t idle, and i’ll honour EFCC’s invitation on Monday and go to the ICPC either on Tuesday or Wednesday,” he said.

Mr El-Rufai had resisted an attempted arrest at the airport in Abuja on Thursday after SSS operatives accosted him and took his passport.