From indications,it looks like Nigerians no longer have any form of privacy on social media as investigations shows that the Federal Government has been monitoring the social media accounts of Nigerians.

Well, not all Nigerians though, just those who are suspected of having links with various terrorist groups, including Boko Haram and the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq.

Investigations revealed that security agencies hack into the Facebook and Twitter accounts of those they are monitoring, the move was meant to frustrate terrorist attacks on the country.

The said project, which is consuming millions of dollars, is being managed by the Office of the National Security Adviser.

Multiple sources stated that the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan approved the request by security agencies to spy on targeted sections of the population, mainly religious extremists and radicalized individuals.

Further revelations indicates that the project is being coordinated by some foreign firms, including an Israeli firm, Elbit System.

The process involves hacking of phones, email accounts, social media accounts and bugging of telephone conversations of persons of interest.

“The surveillance system is not being used to target everyone, as people may want to believe. It is only deployed to get intelligence on specific targets because it would be hard and difficult to use such system to spy on all Nigerians; the amount of data would be too huge and staggering for the assessors to sort and manage.

“Basically, the system is used to hack into emails and phones of targets, and the targets are those who are suspected of having ties with terrorists, whether Boko Haram, ISIS or any other criminal element,” a source said.

It was also learnt that the system had greatly assisted security agencies to curtail and also frustrate many terror plots and attacks across the country.

The security agencies had been using electronic trackers, which they were used to track and apprehend kidnappers, also the electronic surveillance system is more effective and has better capacities to hack emails, passwords and social media accounts used by terrorists to recruit members.

The Force Public Relations Officer, Emmanuel Ojukwu, confirmed that security agencies were using a sophisticated surveillance system as part of measures to combat crime and terrorism in the country.

“It is not a new technology. Everywhere in the world, it is used, including drones and other sophisticated equipment. Nigeria is part of the international community; we have our surveillance system, which shows that Nigeria is developing,” he said.

Ojukwu said the security agencies respect the rights of Nigerians and were not using the system to hack the phones and computers of innocent Nigerians.