The official Twitter page of Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo appeared to have disappeared with its over two million followers on Friday.
Mr Osinbajo has used his “@ProfOsinbajo” screename on the micro-blogging platform to publicise his activities since he was named as the running mate to then-candidate Muhammadu Buhari in late 2014.
He carried on with the handle following his successful campaign with Mr Buhari in the March 2015 presidential election — using it to propagate his administration policies and critical milestones in his marriage to Dolapo.
The account has amassed at least 2.1 million followers as of earlier this week, which made its disappearance easily noticeable amongst a multitude of other newsmakers on Twitter.
As of Saturday morning, “@ProfOsinbajo” could no longer be reached on Twitter. Its history of 2,399 tweets and 488 likes had also become inaccessible on Twitter.
An archive of the handle showed the last activity (a retweet) on it was on August 3.
Mr Osinbajo last tweeted himself on July 28, when he condoled with the families of slain journalist Precious Owolabi following a visit to his family.
It was not immediately clear when the account stopped loading, but there were indications it was around midnight on Friday.
The earliest observation about the account’s disappearance appeared to have come at 9:28 a.m. on Friday.
Whether Twitter suspended or deleted the account or Mr Osinbajo took it offline by himself remained unclear as of Saturday morning.
A spokesperson for Mr Osinbajo, Laolu Akande, did not return requests seeking clarification from PREMIUM TIMES.
Twitter also did not return an e-mail seeking comments about the vice-president’s handle.
In the meantime, its disappearance has been gradually filtering through the Nigerian social media space, amidst speculations over what may the cause.
Update, 12:04 p.m.: Mr Akande has posted a tweet explain that there were attempts to hack his principal’s account and efforts had commenced to resolve it with Twitter.
“Yesterday, there were failed external attempts to gain unauthorized access to the Vice President’s Twitter Account. Since, we have been in contact with Twitter, securing the account, and forestalling a reoccurrence. The VP will continue to actively communicate with our citizens,” Mr Akande.
Source: Premiumtimes
