The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission official X handle has disappeared from the microblogging platform.
Checks by our correspondent on Thursday showed that the account had ceased to exist on the microblogging app.
“This account doesn’t exist,” X responded to all devices trying to access @officialEFCC on Thursday.
According to FIJ, the account had been down since Tuesday and the EFCC spokesperson, Dele Oyewale, while speaking on Tuesday, confirmed the incident.
He said, “Are you sure? Let me find out from our Information and Technology unit,” Oyewale said first.
“It is just a network issue. Our IT people are attending to it and it would be back up so.”
However, as at the time of filing this report, the page is yet to be restored.
The disappearance of the EFCC’s handle comes after suspected internet fraudsters threatened cyber attacks against the agency.
The threats, made on Reddit and other forums, accused the EFCC of overstepping its bounds and extorting suspects.
The EFCC has been intensifying its efforts against online fraudsters, raiding locations like hotels and university dorms.
However, rights advocates have criticized the agency for its harsh methods, including after-dark raids that have sparked public outrage. Despite a ban on such raids, the EFCC has continued them under limited accountability.
It is unclear whether the disappearance of the EFCC’s Twitter handle is linked to the threats or if it resulted from a sanction by X or an internal decision to deactivate the account.
The EFCC’s main website and other social media pages, such as Facebook and Instagram, appear unaffected.
The disappearance of the EFCC’s Twitter account has sparked speculation about the potential impact of a threatened cyberattack.
An X user, @Daniel in his opnion wrote, “You don’t just hack into an account. The EFCC twitter admin probably have never been taught about the danger of clicking random links and putting your password and account into them. Nigeria is a funny country”
Another X user, @Osagistor wrote, “This is becoming more interesting… the battle line between yahoo boys and Efcc just got thicker .. élémì lo mà last mehn!..”
Still reacting, @thesanctuarypr said, “They are the one who hacked the account themselves because they are yahoo messenger.”
@Ikechibene airing his own opinion wrote, “Very shameful.A government that refuses to be just in her delivery of Justice must be ridiculed. You leave politicians who have stolen so much from Nigerians,to chase yahoo boys who steal from people who have dealt with Africa, I’m not in support of Yahoo but justice I stand.”
@Nero said, “The Nigerian government as a whole are not serious entities. How can a whole government not have its own server and satellite. They only know how to steal tax payers money but will never invest in cyber security or even improving our tech industries”
Meanwhile, a social media and political commentator who tweets @Deji Adesogan on X.com has asked Nigerians to disregard the news of hack by suspected yahoo boys stating that checks are currently ongoing and the page would be back soon.
He said, “I learnt via credible source that the X (Twitter) account of EFCC is undergoing some necessary checks, following a technical glitch recently. Will be active soon for the needful. Kindly disregard the story of being hacked or deactivated following reports by some cynical elements
