The Defence Headquarters has regained control of its official X account, @DHQNigeria, following an unauthorised cyberattack that compromised the platform.
The development comes days after the military authorities alerted the public that the account had been breached and urged Nigerians to disregard suspicious or misleading posts published from the handle.
The account was reportedly taken over on Saturday, with unauthorised cryptocurrency-related content posted on the platform.
The breach raised concerns as the account serves as a major communication channel for the Nigerian military, particularly on security operations, defence activities and other official matters.
Following the incident, the Director of Defence Information, Major General Samaila Uba, said the military was treating the matter as a cybersecurity incident and had activated technical measures to secure the account.
“The Defence Headquarters wishes to inform members of the public, the media and all stakeholders that it has detected an attempted unauthorised compromise of its official X (formerly Twitter) account,” Uba said.
He subsequently advised members of the public to disregard any suspicious, unauthorised or misleading information posted from the account during the period of the breach.
The DHQ also directed Nigerians to rely on its verified accounts on other platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and its WhatsApp Channel, pending the recovery of the X account.
The military has now confirmed that it has regained access to the account.
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In its first post after the recovery, the DHQ simply wrote, “WE’RE BACK.”
“Thank you for your patience and continued support,” the military authority added.
The recovery restores one of the Armed Forces of Nigeria’s key platforms for communicating directly with the public.
The DHQ has yet to disclose who was responsible for the cyberattack or how the attackers gained unauthorised access to the account.
The incident remains under investigation as a cybersecurity matter and has renewed concerns over the vulnerability of official government and security institutions to cyber threats, particularly through social media platforms with large public audiences.
