EFCC X Account Disappears After Threat

The official Twitter handle (X) of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has mysteriously vanished from the social media platform amid growing threats of cyber warfare from suspected Internet fraudsters.

The account, which had amassed over 2.2 million followers, became inaccessible on Wednesday, displaying the message “This account doesn’t exist” when searched.

Dele Oyewale, the EFCC’s chief spokesman, confirmed that the handle, @officialEFCC, has been down for three days, attributing the issue to network problems.

He assured the public that the agency’s ICT department is actively working to restore the account.

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“Our ICT department is working on it. They have been on it for almost three days now,” Mr Oyewale told The Gazette on Wednesday night. “We are hoping It will come up again.”

The disappearance of the EFCC’s Twitter handle follows a series of online threats issued by a group of suspected Internet fraudsters.

Over the past weekend, these individuals took to Reddit and other forums, vowing to wage cyber warfare against the anti-graft agency in retaliation for what they described as unconstitutional crackdowns on their activities.

Some claimed they had been extorted by anti-corruption detectives, further fueling their resolve.

In recent months, the EFCC has intensified its campaign against online fraud, conducting numerous raids on hotels and university dormitories in a bid to curb the growing trend of Internet scams.

While these actions have been praised by anti-corruption advocates, they have also drawn criticism from rights groups, who argue that the agency’s aggressive tactics are eroding citizens’ fundamental rights.

The agency’s chairman, Ola Olukoyede, recently announced a ban on midnight raids following a controversial bust at Obafemi Awolowo University that sparked nationwide outrage.

However, reports indicate that the ban was quickly disregarded, with agents resuming nighttime arrests with limited oversight.

It remains unclear whether the disappearance of the EFCC’s Twitter handle was directly caused by those issuing the threats or if it resulted from other factors such as a sanction from Twitter or a deactivation by those managing the account.

As of Thursday morning, the EFCC’s main website and other social media pages on Facebook and Instagram appeared to be functioning normally, unaffected by the incident.