The Nigerian Army has confirmed an attempted unauthorised takeover of its official X account, marking the second reported cyber incident involving a Nigerian military social media platform in about two weeks.
The incident reportedly began at about 3:50pm on Saturday, when the Army’s X account started publishing posts related to memecoins, prompting concerns over the security of the platform.
The Acting Director, Army Public Relations, Appolonia Anele, confirmed the incident in a statement shared on the Army’s official Facebook page.
According to her, the Army detected the unauthorised access and immediately activated technical and protective measures to secure the account.
“The Nigerian Army has detected and is actively responding to an attempted unauthorised access to its official X (formerly Twitter) account,” Anele said.
She explained that the measures were aimed at preventing further unauthorised access, protecting the integrity of information shared on the platform and restoring exclusive administrative control to the Army.
“The Nigerian Army assures members of the public, the media and other stakeholders that appropriate measures are underway to fully secure the affected account and restore exclusive administrative control,” she added.
The Army urged members of the public to disregard any suspicious, unauthorised, misleading or unverified content published through the affected account.
It also advised media organisations and other stakeholders to verify information attributed to the Army through its other official communication channels.
As of the time of the report, it was unclear whether the Army had fully regained control of the account, as the last visible post on the page was published before the reported incident.
The latest development comes about two weeks after the Defence Headquarters disclosed that its official X account had also been compromised in a cyberattack.
In a statement issued on August 15, the Director of Defence Information, Samaila Uba, said appropriate technical measures had been deployed to secure the account and prevent further unauthorised access.
The repeated incidents have raised fresh concerns about the cybersecurity of Nigeria’s military communication platforms, particularly as the Army and Defence Headquarters increasingly depend on social media to disseminate official information on security and military operations.
The breaches could also heighten concerns over the potential spread of false or misleading information through military accounts during sensitive security situations.
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