Personnel records of former and current members of Nigeria's top
domestic spy agency, including home addresses and names of immediate
family members, leaked onto the Internet in a threatening message that
claimed to come from a radical Islamist sect that's killed hundreds of
people this year alone, The Associated Press has learned.
The
leak of personal data of more than 60 past and current employees of
Nigeria's State Security Service remained easily accessible on the
Internet for days and had details about the agency's director-general,
including his mobile phone number, bank account particulars and contact
information for his son. Many of agents listed who could be reached by
the AP said they received no official warning from the spy agency that
their information had been posted online nor been otherwise alerted. The
material has been deleted from the comment section of a website, but
the security breach astonished veterans and calls into question whether
Nigeria's intelligence community, whose agents already have released
suspected terrorists out of religious and ethnic sympathies, are too
compromised from within to stop the violence now plaguing Africa's most
populous nation.
"This is a national embarrassment," said one
Nigerian intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as
information about the leak was not to have been made public.
Marilyn
Ogar, a spokeswoman for the State Security Service, did not immediately
respond to requests for comment Thursday about the leak.
The
State Security Service, created in 1986 by then-military ruler Gen.
Ibrahim Babangida, monitors domestic dissent in Nigeria, an oil-rich
nation of more than 160 million people. Though geared toward stopping
terrorism and destabilizing coups, the agency routinely faces criticism
for targeting government critics. In Abuja, Nigeria's capital, the
agency operates out of cars made to look like the many green taxis that
roam the streets. Plain-clothed agents of the service routinely question
foreign journalists at airports, border crossings and on city streets
if they see reporters conducting interviews. Agents carrying assault
rifles often guard major events in the country.
Many agents for
the typically secretive agency are preoccupied with concealing their
identities, as most try to blend unnoticed into society.
The
information leak came in two postings earlier this month on a website
that provides rewritten news on Nigeria. The first posting threatened to
kill agents of the State Security Service on behalf of Boko Haram, a
radical Islamist sect responsible for more than 660 killings this year
alone in Nigeria. The second posting simply offered a block of text
containing biographical and other details about the agents.
Though
the comments have been removed, the AP is not identifying the website
involved as cached versions of the comments remain online and
intelligence service agents have been killed by Boko Haram members in
the past.
The list includes former and current agents across the
country, including Director-General Ekpeyong Ita. Those reached by the
AP who were willing to talk expressed disbelief that sensitive
information like that could make its way to the Internet.
"I was
shocked to see my details posted on the Internet," said one former
agent, who declined to be named out of safety concerns. "I've not heard
anything from anybody. I was surprised that such information could be
leaked."
Another man on the list said he simply once served as a
doctor to help the agency on an on-call basis only. The list appeared to
include lower-ranking agents, as well as one-time state directors for
the agency.
Some of those contacted suggested that the list
appeared to come from the agency's pension department, as it mostly
included retirees and listed bank account information for nearly all
those named.
The release of the information comes as Nigeria's
intelligence agencies have made a series of blunders in trying to fight
Boko Haram in Africa's most populous country, with some likely
influenced by ethnic or religious sentiments. Intelligence agencies
allegedly released a suspected Islamic radical in 2007 who later
masterminded Boko Haram's suicide car bombing of the U.N. headquarters
in August 2011 that killed at least 25 people and wounded more than 100
others, officials previously told the AP. A leaked U.S. diplomatic cable
also show U.S. officials complained in 2008 about Nigeria's government
quietly releasing other suspects into the custody of Islamic leaders as
part of a program it called "Perception Management."
Another U.S.
diplomatic cable complains that State Security Service agents nearly
let a suspected bomb maker trained by the Somali terror group al-Shabab
onto an international flight, despite an Interpol notice for his arrest.
The agents who allegedly tried to release Mohamed Ibrahim Ahmed "not
only knew about the Interpol notice, but simply said they did not want
to hold him any longer," the February 2010 cable read.
Ahmed, an
Eritrean, pleaded guilty to charges in June in a U.S. federal court that
he supported terrorism by associating with al-Shabab, a terror group
with links to al-Qaida. He faces up to 10 years in prison.
Most
of those on the leaked list of agents reached by the AP said no one from
the federal government or the spy agency warned them that their
personnel information had appeared on the Internet. Instead, colleagues
and other former agents called each other to spread the news and later
contacted the State Security Service themselves to report the breach.
It
is unclear if the person who posted the information online really does
have ties to Boko Haram, which has targeted security officials in the
past. Violence has been centered mostly in the country's Muslim north.
One retired agent who spoke to AP said he was grateful he lives in the
largely Christian south, away from the sect's attacks.
"It's
worrying that they have access to that," the agent said. "Those living
in Abuja (and the north) are the ones who should living in fear
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