Nigerian Army’s X Account Hacked Twice in Two Weeks, Now Pushing Memecoin Posts

ABUJA

The Nigerian Army says its official X account was targeted in an attempted unauthorised takeover on Saturday, the second such breach of a Nigerian military social media handle in barely two weeks, after the account briefly began publishing memecoin-related content before the military could regain full control.

No individual has been publicly named as a suspect in either incident, and the Army says investigations into the source of the breach remain ongoing.

How Saturday’s breach unfolded

According to a statement by Col. Appolonia Anele, Acting Director of Army Public Relations, the account began pushing unauthorised memecoin-related updates at about 3:50pm on Saturday, 29 August, prompting the military to flag the activity as a cybersecurity incident within the hour.

“The Nigerian Army has detected and is actively responding to an attempted unauthorised access to its official X account,” Anele said, adding that technical and protective measures had been activated to secure the account, block further unauthorised access, and protect the integrity of information shared through the platform.

Not the first time this month

Findings by ValidViewNetwork show this is the second such incident in roughly fourteen days: on 15 August, the Defence Headquarters disclosed that its own official X account, @DHQNigeria, had been compromised, with attackers pushing a cryptocurrency reward scheme to nearly a million followers for several hours before the account was restored.

In neither case has any attacker been publicly identified, and analysts who have reviewed both incidents say the pattern points toward financially motivated scammers rather than any state-linked actor, at least for now.

Why analysts say it should still worry Nigeria

Checks by ValidViewNetwork show cybersecurity commentators view the repeated breaches as a warning sign rather than a coincidence.

ADVERTISEMENT

With Nigeria’s general election just months away in January 2027, observers note that if profit-driven hackers can hijack the military’s official communication channels this easily, the same vulnerability could later be exploited by actors with more damaging intentions, including the spread of disinformation during a tense election period.

What the Army is telling the public

In the interim, the Army has urged Nigerians and the media to disregard any suspicious, unauthorised or unverified content published through the affected account, and to rely instead on its other official channels, including its YouTube pages, for confirmed information.

“The Nigerian Army appreciates the vigilance, understanding and cooperation of the public and will provide further updates as necessary,” the statement said, as the military works to fully restore exclusive administrative control of the account.