A Department of State Services (DSS)’ witness on Monday testified against former Gov. Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State in his ongoing trial over alleged breach of national security.
The witness, identified as “APC” for security reasons, was led in evidence-in-chief by counsel to the DSS, Oluwole Aladedoye, SAN, before Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court in Abuja.
The witness told the court that he knew the defendant as former FCT minister and ex-govenor of Kaduna State.
APC, who is the Prosecution Witness one (PW-1), said he monitored an interview granted by El-Rufai on a live TV programme.
He said after watching the interview, grave statements were allegedly attributed to the defendant and these were escalated to his superior officer.
He further stated that he downloaded the interview on YouTube and saved it in a flash drive and certificate of compliance was generated.
Aladedoye tendered the flash drive with the certificate of compliance and were admitted in evidence and marked as Exibit A1 and Exhibit A by the judge.
The video tape of the interview was also played in the open court on the application of the presecuting counsel.
In the video on Arise Tv, El-Rufai, told the anchor his encounter with the DSS operatives at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos State.
He said the operatives demanded to see his passport, but one of his aides collected it from him and the officers snatched it from his aide.
El-Rufai also said he knew Nuhu Ribadu, the National Security Adviser (NSA), had instructed the DSS to arrest him because someone tapped his phone conversation.
When the anchor told him that phone tapping was wrong, El-Rufai insisted that “we listened to their call, someone tapped the phone conversation and told us that he gave the order.”
“The National Security Adviser told the DSS that I must be abducted today.
“When you try to take a person without a valid order, it is not an arrest, it is an abduction,” he said in the interview.
The video, at a point, could not play any longer due to technical issues and the prosecution lawyer then applied for an adjournment to enable him produce a clearer version of the recording.
The judge subsequently adjourned the matter until Tuesday for continuation of trial
