When the Director of Ghana’s National Signal Bureau and his romantically linked sexy divorcee attempted to board Emirate Airlines on the 7th of November, they were on their way to the to the Holy Land, of Israel but not for a holy pursuit.
Emerging details of how the national security trio missed their Emirate flight, starts with a romantic link between the cyber capo who operates on the blurry lines of sex, work and ends in a dark story of kidnapping whilst on a journey to procure the dreaded Israeli spyware Pegasus, which was used to abduct and murder Washington Post journalist Kasogi .
The new republic can now reveal that the primary purpose of this journey was a rendezvous in Tel Aviv, Israel, with officials from the Israeli cyber-intelligence company, NSO Group Technologies.
Here, a staggering sum of US$125 million was negotiated for the replenishment of the state’s surveillance tool known as Pegasus. In cybersecurity jargon, this transaction involves the acquisition of “Queries,” which function as operating units essential for Pegasus to execute its surveillance tasks – akin to purchasing call credits for a mobile phone.
The Akufo-Addo administration sanctioned the payment for 80 queries, a figure that sources deem exorbitant considering that procuring 80 queries typically costs around US$5 million.
The inflated price tag was reportedly due to the government’s desperate intention to deploy Pegasus for monitoring activities leading up to the impending elections. NSO, recognized for developing and maintaining the Pegasus spyware, markets its technology for cybersecurity purposes.
However, Pegasus has frequently been misused by political figures, particularly autocrats, for surveilling their populace. With speculations rife that the Akufo-Addo government aims to manipulate the election outcome, the urgency to equip Pegasus for comprehensive surveillance drove the substantial investment in 80 queries for the national spyware.
The covert motives behind the October 19 expedition instigated the Signals Bureau chief to facilitate the abduction and mistreatment of Sylvia Baah by rogue National Security entities, subsequent to her refusal to facilitate the recall of the original Emirates Airlines flight the group was scheduled to travel on due to their delayed arrival.
Following their rebooking on an Ethiopian Airlines flight post the Emirates Airlines incident, the trio reportedly journeyed through Dubai en route to Tel Aviv, where the transaction with NSO transpired.
Further developments to follow!