‘Dotun Akintomide With Agency Report
A former employee of a UK data firm-Cambridge Analytica, Christopher Wylie, has told British lawmakers how an Israeli spy firm “Black Cube” was engaged to hack President Muhammadu Buhari to get access to his medical records and private emails.
Wylie who appeared before UK lawmakers at a special hearing Tuesday, said the Israeli spy firm was involved in a hacking scheme targeting the Nigerian president, who was then the flagbearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
In a report monitored on ARISE NEWS CHANNEL, Wylie said Cambridge Analytica “utilized the services of an Israeli private intelligence firm, Black Cube to hack Buhari to get access to his medical records and private emails.”
Cambridge Analytica had earlier been reported to have been hired by an unnamed Nigerian billionaire to support the re-election of former President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 presidential election in which Buhari was his main challenger.
At yesterday’s special hearing, Wylie described Cambridge Analytica, which engaged Black Cube, “as a company that goes around the world undermining institutions in countries that are still struggling with weak institutions.”
Wylie said the company used the social media to circulate fake news on Buhari and also distributed photos and videos of people maimed and disemboweled with a view to sending a clear message on what would happen should the election go in a particular direction.
Meanwhile, Black Cube has denied the claim that it was engaged in a hacking scheme targeting Buhari, describing it as a “flagrant lie”.
A statement issued in response to Wylie’s claim said Black Cube “never operated in Nigeria or for any Nigerian connected project and none of its employees has ever put his foot in Nigeria connected to her projects.”
The statement further claimed that “Black Cube has always operated within the boundaries of the law in every jurisdiction it operates, following legal advice from the world’s leading law firms.”
While vowing to investigate the claim and “reveal the truth and the motive behind Wylie’s defamatory lie”, the Israeli firm said, “we are flattered that we are seemingly being connected with every international incident that occurs, we will state that Chris Wylie’s testimony is a flagrant lie. We categorically declare that neither Black Cube, nor any of its affiliates and subsidiaries, have ever worked for, or engaged with, SCL, Cambridge Analytica, or any of their affiliates and subsidiaries.”
It threatened to “launch a massive defamation claim against any entity that we will find involved, including Christopher Wylie, SCL or Cambridge Analytica for any pound they still have or don’t have.”
