Leaked: In a recent development, it has been reported that the United States Intelligence Community was monitoring Nigeria’s just-concluded national elections, as well as tracking high-level discussions within the Department of State Services (DSS).
Bellnewsonline.com understands that these reports come in the wake of leaked files that reveal information about US spying on both allies and adversaries. The documents, which were highly classified, indicate that the US also gathered intelligence on events occurring in South Korea, France, Israel, Ukraine, and Russia.
The files relating to Nigeria, which bore markings indicating they were a compilation of assessments from open-source intelligence and highly sensitive communication intercepts, were also discovered.
One of the top-secret briefs that was obtained through intercepted communication revealed that security services were aware of malfunctions in some of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) prior to the elections.
“Nigerian Department of State Services (DSS) Assistant Director for the Communications Intelligence Department Usman Sani on 19 February recounted to DSS Director-General Yusuf Bichi that INEC Deputy Director of Information and Communication Technology Lawrence Bayode earlier that day revealed to probably INEC Principal Engineer Victor Igboh that some BVAS devices began malfunctioning prior to being sent out to their designated locations,” the brief revealed.
According to the leaked documents, Igboh, a senior official, reported that the majority of BVAS devices stored at the INEC headquarters in Rivers state were malfunctioning due to swollen batteries. He warned that if the issue was not quickly resolved, it would likely affect the election. The document also reported unspecified challenges with BVAS and card reader machines in the northeast region.
The documents went further to reveal that American intelligence was monitoring the communications of senior officials in Nigeria’s domestic intelligence agency. The updates by the Central Intelligence Agency on the outcome of the election indicated that Bola Ahmed Tinubu had been announced as the President-elect, having passed the benchmark of 25% of votes in two-thirds of the country’s 36 states and the capital.
Another document revealed that the Nigerian government maintained an increased security posture following the announcement, as revealed through imagery analysis. The leaks also suggested that the US was monitoring the internal conversations of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and even those of its closest allies, such as South Korea.
While the US government has not confirmed the authenticity of the documents, officials stated that they appear legitimate, although at least one page had been altered.
According to Reuters, the US national security community is grappling with the magnitude of the leak and the impact it will have on sensitive information-sharing within the government and its ties with other countries.
The atmosphere within the US authorities is reportedly troubling, especially as the documents have been brought to light by publications such as the New York Times.