‘I’m not soliciting funds from public,’ Akwa Ibom Gov raises alarm as hackers takeover WhatsApp number

Governor Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom State has denied soliciting funds to be paid in certain account numbers from the public.

This was after some fraudsters hacked the governor’s WhatsApp number.

On Tuesday, some contact addresses of Eno received messages from the governor’s WhatsApp number, requesting that a certain amount of money be sent to an account and with a promise that it would be refunded later.

However, in a statement, Ekerete Udoh, the chief press secretary (CPS) to Eno, said the WhatsApp phone number of the governor was “cloned” by criminal elements to defraud unsuspecting persons.

Udoh said law enforcement agencies have been alerted over the development.

“Our attention has been drawn to carefully orchestrated fraudulent posts on some social media platforms, where some criminal elements have cloned the WhatsApp number of His Excellency, the Governor of Akwa Ibom State, with an intent to defraud unsuspecting members of the public,” the statement reads.

“We hereby warn that any message appearing to solicit funds by these imposters should be totally discountenanced by the general public as they do not emanate from the Governor.

“The law enforcement agents have been duly alerted and are on the trail of the perpetrators of this ignoble act.”

NewsClick Nigeria reports that Governor Eno is the second Nigerian Governor experiencing hackers’ intrusion of his privacy. In July, one of the phone numbers of Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State was also hacked.