In an exclusive interview with HumanIPO, Anonymous Nigeria, a cell of the worldwide Anonymous movement, discuss their planned cyber attacks in the west African country and what motivates them to consider such actions.
For those unfamiliar with the activities of organisations such as Anonymous Nigeria, Hacktivism is the use of web defacements, redirects and denial-of-service attacks as a means of protest to promote political ends, such as free speech, human rights and information ethics.
Acts of hacktivism are carried out in the belief that proper use of code will be able to produce similar results to those produced by regular activism or civil disobedience.
HumanIPO spoke to Garki_boy after getting permission from Anonymous Nigeria. According to Garki_boy, the issue of Nigerian corruption has been pertinent for many decades and has largely remained unchallenged.
“We are a gathering of young minds mostly made up of undergraduates both in Nigeria and abroad,” he said. “[We] felt we could use the skills available to us to fight back in the only way we knew we could which is by mixing hacking and activism.”
HumanIPO: How many members does Anonymous Nigeria have?
Garki_boy: Anonymous Nigeria is made up of over 60 members, with over 20 of such members granted admin rights to run our online accounts which includes those on social media. 21 of those are based in foreign [outside Nigeria) universities.
What technical skills does the group possess?
Majority of them are programmers, covering C,C++, python,SQL, just to mention a few. Coupled with the skills they learn in their various schools.Basically our cell has got what it takes to bring down the cyber world of these [Nigerian] government agencies and their cronies.
You mentioned your unhappiness with corruption in Nigeria, any specific cases?
Yes, i will specifically mention the four cases.
First is the massive [alleged] looting of the treasury and the commonwealth of the Nigerian people under the guise of providing subsidy for petroleum products importation by government agents, serving government officials and some businessmen/women who serve as marketers.
Huge payments were made, most of them to the cronies/allies and families of these government officials and in most cases the products delivered were no where near the quantity paid for and as we all know, in other cases no petroleum products were delivered at all. These were revealed during probe panels set by the govt. itself and many of those people were indicted but we are yet to see them punished. A good example is the case of Femi Otedola who still hobnobs with the president, Goodluck Jonathan.
Second…the case of [alleged] stolen funds meant for pension payment for retired civil servants and ex-service men/women. Billions were diverted to private pockets/accounts while those pensioners were left in the cold, most of them died out of frustration and hardship and poverty. As you know, the Nigerian pensioners suffer a lot of hardships, these are people who served the country and should be rewarded now that most of them are senior citizens but that has not been the case. The government, like it has always been the case, has not put in serious efforts to have the offenders punished.
Third is the [alleged] corruption within our Judiciary system, whereby Justice is now reserved for those in power and the highest bidder.
Lastly is the case of Hon.Farouk Lawan, the bribery allegation of over US$600,000 was made against him. We wish the truth of the matter be brought out and those involved (those that gave and received the bribes) be punished according to the law
It is sad that corruption has increased a lot during Goodluck Jonathan’s presidency due to the fact that the man has refused to punish offenders and also frustrates the efforts of the agencies involved to punish the offenders, this [we believe] the government does through it’s willing lapdog, the Minister of Justice, Adoke.
Given all these cases you sight, have you performed any attacks or mobilised the nation?
We’ve carried out attacks on various government websites and databases and other organizations that support government corruption and those that benefit from it.We are planning more delay attacks on the govt. and it’s agencies, attacks which will be unprecedented in the history of Nigerian cyber space.
Tell me more about these planned attacks.
These attacks will be in conjunction with our affiliates worldwide, and they are due to the failure of government to address the numerous cases of corruption that has come within the life of this present administration. This must not be mistaken as an attack on the personal person of President Goodluck Jonathan but we would do same regardless of anyone who is president and unwilling to fight these corrupt practices.
Like I mentioned, we are compiling a dossier of these government officials, the ones we can get for now, the banks they hide these funds in within the country and abroad. As for the banks within Nigeria, once we have sufficient evidence, we shall demand the refund these stolen funds back to the Central Bank of Nigeria, failure to comply which will result in serious cyber attacks on their internet facilities/databases.
What will these attacks entail, DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service)? Cracked Databases?
DDoS, Cracked databases which we will post all the details on pastebin and the spread of Viruses/Worms/Trojans and anything any of our affiliates can come up with. The idea is to play dirty since the government is playing dirty.
Lastly, note that Anonymous Nigeria does not carry out attacks on the press/media. We see them as fighting the same course.
