Umo Eno, the governor of Akwa Ibom has been a victim of fraud as his WhatsApp number was hacked and used to extort his contacts, according to media reports.
On Tuesday, some of the governor’s contacts received messages from his WhatsApp number requesting an amount of money be sent to an account number to be refunded later.
Ekerete Udoh, his chief press secretary (CPS) however noted in a statement that the WhatsApp phone number of the governor was “cloned” by criminal elements to defraud unsuspecting persons.
“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.”
Udoh added that the law enforcement officials had already been alerted.
“The law enforcement agents have been duly alerted and are on the trail of the perpetrators of this ignoble act.”
