How Jonathan Government Paid Companies Linked To Doyin Okupe To Hack 'Unfriendly Websites'



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, PREMIUM
TIMES 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 Mr. 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.

Mr. Okupe, a former Senior Special Assistant on
Public Affairs to Mr, 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 Mr. 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 Mr. Okupe’s close allies
reinforces 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 PREMIUM
TIMES, the NSA 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
PREMIUM TIMES 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 Mr.
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.

Many Nigerian media websites, including
PREMIUM TIMES, were victims of these attacks
through the campaign period to the election
days.
“On the day of the presidential election in 2015,
we suffered a layer 7 – or application layer DDoS
– that lasted 23 hours and peaked at 200
Megabytes per second forcing us to deploy
extensive measures to remain online,” PREMIUM
TIMES Managing Editor, Musikilu Mojeed, said.
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
Mr. 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 Mr.
Okupe and Ilan Salman, an Israeli who has
worked in Nigeria for close to 20 years.
Mr. Okupe denies any links with the company.
His partner at Romix in Nigeria, Mr. Salman,
does not.
“Romix Technologies is a duplicity of name,” Mr.
Okupe told PREMIUM TIMES. “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.

But PREMIUM TIMES investigations traced
several financial transactions between the
company and its Nigerian version, Soilfix Nigeria
Ltd as far back as 2012 when Mr. Okupe was still
an active member of the board at Romix in
Nigeria.
Our investigations also traced financial
transactions between Romix in Cyprus and Mr.
Salman, the Israeli who partnered Mr. Okupe to
found Romix Soilfix in Nigeria, back in 2004.
Mr. Okupe claimed Mr. Salman left Romix in
Nigeria several years ago and may have set up
the shell company in Cyprus.
PREMIUM TIMES investigations showed
otherwise. Mr. 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 was
(were) a loss to Nigerians. No tax was remitted
to the Nigerian government in this transaction.
Mr. 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.”
Mr. Salman claims the Nigerian government
owes him $600 thousand 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

Mr. 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 as ‘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 was(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. Mr. 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, seen by PREMIUM TIMES, the
NSA paid 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. Mr. 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, Circles and many other mass
surveillance solutions.

Mr. Salman denied he got these contract to help
siphon monies to Mr. 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.

The office of the National Security Adviser,
currently headed by Babagana Monguno,
declined to comment on these contracts. An FOI
request sent to his office was simply ignored.




http://saharareporters.com/2016/01/19/how-jonathan-government-paid-companies-linked-doyin-okupe-hack-unfriendly-websites

One of the contracts had instructions to hunt
down unfriendly media websites with
Distributed Denial of Service attacks.






Maybe this was why www.nairaland.com and www.lifestyletonight..com were hacked in 2014

waiting for the summarized version.........

Never again will a clueless and incompetent leader rule over,Nigeria.

Eleyo gidi gan.

The indomine head will soon be a guest to EFCC........

People were paid to bring down "unfriendly websites"....this is serious!