Nigerian Governor's WhatsApp Number Hacked By Fraudsters

Suspected fraudsters have hacked the WhatsApp number of Umo Eno, the governor of Nigeria’s oil-rich state of Akwa Ibom, and asked his contacts for money.

Akwa Ibom, in southern Nigeria, is the country’s third-richest state, with an annual gross domestic product of $19 billion (£15 billion).

The governor, a pastor who founded the All Nations Christian Ministry International, was elected last year.

Many of Mr Eno’s telephone contacts received messages from his WhatsApp number on Tuesday asking them to transfer a certain amount of money to an account and promising to pay the amount back later.

The governor’s spokesperson, Ekerete Udoh, released a statement confirming that the governor’s WhatsApp number had been ‘cloned’ by criminals trying to defraud unsuspecting persons.

Mr Udoh said law enforcement agencies had been informed.

“We hereby warn that any message that appears to be aimed at raising funds by these fraudsters should be totally rejected by the general public as it does not originate from the Governor,” the statement said.

Less than a month ago, the phone number of another governor was stolen in similar circumstances: Ademola Adeleke of Osun State, the uncle of Afrobeats star Davido.

Cybersecurity analyst Bilal Abdullahi said governors should add extra security to their numbers and WhatsApp to prevent such problems.

“WhatsApp enables additional layers of security, where you can link the app to your email address for authorisation before you use it. There’s also something we call App Lock, where you can lock the application and only use it if you enter a PIN or passcode,” he told the BBC.

Despite a massive crackdown in recent years, with the financial crime agency EFCC arresting thousands of people, cyber fraud, popularly known as “Yahoo-Yahoo”, remains a major problem in Nigeria.

The director of Nigeria’s National Cyber Crime Centre (NCCC), Uche Ifeanyi Henry, recently told the BBC that the Nigerian government has spent millions of pounds on a state-of-the-art cybercrime centre to show that the government takes cybercrime seriously.