Two
companies linked to Doyin Okupe, a former media aide to President
Goodluck Jonathan, got at least N1.6 billion off the former National
Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, in three shady cyber security
contracts, a media online investigations have shown.
One
of the contracts had instructions to hunt down unfriendly media
websites with Distributed Denial of Service attacks.
It
was a project conceived to shut down online media platforms perceived
as friendly to Buhari or critical of Jonathan ahead of the 2015
election.
The
other was a contract to intercept all optic fibre cables landing in
Nigeria. The third was a passive mass and target GSM interception
that had the ability to decrypt ciphers and operate undetected.
Okupe,
a former Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs to Jonathan, has
so far evaded scrutiny in the ongoing arms contracting scandal where
the former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, is charged for
allegedly mismanaging funds meant for the fight against Boko Haram in
Nigeria’s Northeast region.
The
government believes Dasuki’s actions led to the death of thousands
of Nigerians and hundreds of Nigerian troops in the hands of Boko
Haram fighters.
The
contracts awarded Okupe’s close allies reinforce claims that the
former NSA merely doled out cash and contracts to cronies and
political associates and violated procurement regulations in the
process.
In
the three contracts investigated by online, the NSA office did not
prioritize efficiency or due process and value for money in the
awarding process. Rather, there was a pattern of hurried release of
cash. In one instance, full contract sums were paid before delivery
of products – and insiders claim product was never delivered.
In
the three contracts, the NSA paid more than double the actual amounts
of items purchased and relied on single source when it could have
opened up the contract to competitive bidding.
Hunting
the opposition
On
June 13, 2014, in the heat of the 2015 presidential elections
campaigns, Romix Technologies Ltd, registered as an offshore and
anonymous company in Cyprus, received N398 million – two million US
dollars – payment from the Office of the National Security Adviser
in Nigeria.
That
was a part payment for a cyber-hooliganism contract that would later
cost Nigeria $2.6 million.
The
sum was wired to Romix Technologies Ltd’s bank account account held
with Luemi Private Bank in Zurich, Switzerland in June 2014.
The
contract for which Romix Technologies was paid N398 million was
merely explained as “supply and installation of cyber intelligence
system software at the office of the National Security Adviser.”
The
specific software was not stated. But investigations revealed that
the true nature of the contract was to acquire tools to carry out
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on websites believed to
be critical of Jonathan, ahead of the elections.
The
actual purchase was a DDoS service called “The Systems” offered
by Packets Technologies AD, an Israeli company operating out of
Bulgaria.
Its
job was simple – attack and bring down websites the NSA felt was
not sympathetic to the administration of Goodluck Jonathan. This they
did by flooding target website servers with malicious traffic with
the aim of shutting out genuine visitors and working host servers
till they break down.
Internet
security experts estimate that the amount the NSA paid for these
hacking services was at least 250 percent higher than the actual
market value.
This
contract, investigators suspect, might be Okupe’s link to the
largesse, now known as Dasukigate.
How
Doyin Okupe relates with Romix Technologies ltd
Romix
Technologies in Cyprus has its ownership anonymized – a practice
allowed in Cyprus and few other countries that enable ‘investors’
set up and run shell companies.
The
company shares its first name and financial ties with Romix Soilfix
Nigeria Ltd, owned by Okupe and Ilan Salman, an Israeli who has
worked in Nigeria for close to 20 years.
Okupe
denies any links with the company, “Romix
Technologies is a duplicity of name,” Okupe told online platform.
“I have nothing to do with it.”
Romix
Technologies Ltd is a shell and anonymous company in Cyprus – which
means it can allow its true owners remain anonymous to the public.
Investigations
traced several financial transactions between the company and its
Nigerian version, Soilfix Nigeria Ltd as far back as 2012 when Okupe
was still an active member of the board at Romix in Nigeria.
Our
investigations also traced financial transactions between Romix in
Cyprus and Salman, the Israeli who partnered Okupe to found Romix
Soilfix in Nigeria, back in 2004.
Okupe
claimed Salman left Romix in Nigeria several years ago and may have
set up the shell company in Cyprus but investigations showed
otherwise. Salman still sat on the board of Romix in Nigeria and
owned 40 percent of the company’s shares as at first week of
January, this year.
Monies
paid to Romix Technologies Ltd were a loss to Nigerians. No tax was
remitted to the Nigerian government in this transaction.
Salman
defended the non-payment of taxes, arguing that it was part of the
contract term. “This
was an offshore contract,” he said. “Our solution was in
(US)dollars, no tax. ”Salman claims the Nigerian government owes
him $600, 000 on this project.
An
accounting official at the NSA office, Yazidu Ibrahim, had earlier
testified that “in the last five years, for all the companies that
were paid, VAT and Withholding Tax were never paid for any contract.”
Master
Surveillance
Salman
runs a second company called Mi Marathon with another Israeli, Maoz
Steinhauer. In the run up to the 2015 elections, Mi Marathon, grabbed
two juicy contracts from the Nigerian government through the former
NSA, Dasuki.
The
largest contract was one called Fiber Optic Landing Solution worth
N712.2 million ($3,580,000.00). This contract was meant to create a
backdoor access to all fibre optic cables landing in Nigeria for the
office of the National Security Adviser.
Insiders
explained this contract has ‘simply plug into all the optic fiber
cables linking Nigeria so that the NSA can have direct access and
inspect all packets entering or leaving Nigeria’. “Mass
surveillance from the source.”
Papers
for this contract were signed in January 2014. Ibikunle Daramola, a
Group Captain, who was secretary to the former NSA signed agreements
on January 17, 2014 but the contract was not completed, insiders
said. Salman blamed this on the NSA.
The
third was a N335.1 million (USD1.6 million) contract to supply a
stealth and intrusive GSM mass surveillance called Engage GI2
Tactical Solution developed by Verint.
M.I.
Smart Solutions, a subsidiary of MI Marathon, sent in the proposal to
supply this device in April 2014. By July, the NSA had approved and
payments were made to another company in the Mi Marathon network,
Mimarathon Resources Limited.
Interestingly,
rather than approve the contracts before payments were made, the
former NSA directed the Central Bank of Nigeria to pay Mi Marathon,
in United States Dollars, on July 11 while approval for the contract
was documented 10 days later.
The
former NSA did not prioritize service delivery and cost effectiveness
while awarding this contract.
The
NSA awarded these contracts on single proposals, a manipulation of
the procurement process allowed during natural disasters or
emergencies or when procuring services rendered by only one provider.
In
transactional documents between the NSA and Mi Marathon, the NSA
ordered for two units of the Engage GI2 Tactical Solution at the cost
of $841,000 per device. In the end, only one GI2 IMSI Catcher was
supplied at the cost of $329,800.
In
this deal alone, Mi Marathon made a profit of over $511,200 thousand.
Salman argued his prices were very competitive.
As
at the time the NSA doled out cash for these surveillance devices,
the country had little need for them. The NSA had many other systems
like the Elbit’s Wise Technology acquired few years before. Pegasus
and many other mass surveillance solutions.
Salman
denied he got these contract to help siphon monies to Okupe. He
explained that the reasons only him got these three juicy contracts
from the NSA in one year was because he is a great marketer.
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