ACN blasts FG for $40m Internet surveillance contract

ACN accused the President Good luck's administration of launching an assault on the civil rights of Nigerians awarding a $40m Internet surveillance contract to an Israeli based company.

According to source the contract will allow the government to monitor the Internet communication of privacy of citizens, especially journalists and those considered to be opponents of the administration.

The party stated this while reacting to a report that the Federal Government had awarded a $40m Internet surveillance contract.

The ACN, in a statement in Lagos on Sunday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said since  the contract was reported, the government had yet to deny it.

It said because the government had yet to deny the reports days after its publication, it was safe to say that it was true. “For a government that is increasingly paranoid, having failed to meet the yearnings and aspirations of it  citizens, who are getting frustrated by the day. Now it want to spy on it citizens. What a failed government he further more.  the ability to spy on the Internet communications of citizens as well as to intercept and read private emails, not to talk of being able to suppress unwanted connections, is a potent weapon against the civil rights of Nigerians. and it is against the constitution which states freedom of expression, freedom of the press and freedom of association.

It is common knowledge that the Jonathan administration has been getting a bad rap from Nigerians in the traditional media as well as the social media.

ACN added, “This is why we are calling on the National Assembly, civil liberties organisations, professional groups and ordinary citizens to speak out now before it is too late. No government have the right to play a ‘Big Brother’ role in the lives of the citizens, because this will ultimately herald the return to autocratic rule.

However, the Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Dr. Ahmed Gulak, on Sunday, said the ACN did not have any moral ground to be attacking the Federal Government as it was doing.

The presidential aide, who said he would not comment on the Internet contract based on speculation, noted that the ACN and its national leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, lacked the moral platform on which they could be criticising Federal Government.

Gulak said, “I am not aware of that (the surveillance contract). I cannot make comment on it based on speculation.