El-Rufai Alleges NSA Ribadu Phone Tapped
Last update: February 14, 2026
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El-Rufai says he listens to NSA Ribadu’s conversations....
Former Kaduna State governor Nasir El-Rufai said on Friday that he and others had access to telephone conversations of National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu, alleging that an individual tapped the security chief’s phone and relayed information to him.
“Nuhu made the call and made the order that I must be in custody yesterday,” El-Rufai said in an interview on Arise Television. “We listen to their calls; the government thinks they’re the only ones that listen to calls, but we also have our ways. Someone tapped his phone and told me.”
El-rufai said this while recounting his experience with operatives of the State Security Service at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja.
When told during the interview that tapping the NSA’s phone would be illegal, El-Rufai said the government routinely listens to calls without court orders, adding that he was informed Ribadu had directed that he be detained.
El-Rufai said his lawyers had notified the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission that he was on annual vacation and would honour its invitation upon returning to the country.
He clarified that the attempted arrest was not initiated by the EFCC but by the State Security Service, which he alleged was acting at the behest of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission.
“It wasn’t the EFCC,” he said. “Subsequently we found out that it was the ICPC that procured the DSS to abduct me, then hand me over to them.”
He described the ICPC as increasingly becoming a “personal tool” of Ribadu but commended the EFCC for what he called its professionalism, saying he would honour the agency’s invitation on Monday, Feb. 16.
El-Rufai said the ICPC delivered a letter to his residence on Thursday inviting him for questioning on Friday, Feb. 13, and that his lawyer had responded, indicating he would appear after meeting with the EFCC.
He had resisted what he described as an attempted arrest at the Abuja airport on Thursday after security operatives accosted him and confiscated his passport.
