Disregard congratulatory, solidarity message to impeached Deputy Gov. from hacked X account - Edo Sports Comm., Bendel Insurance

The Edo State Sports Commission, Bendel Insurance Football Club and Edo Queens have distanced themselves from a statement credited to Bendel Insurance FC and Edo Queens FC where they purportedly congratulated the impeached deputy governor of the State, Philip Shaibu over his decamping to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

In a statement, the Chairman, Edo State Sports Commission, Yussuf Alli, OLY, said the goodwill message allegedly emanating from an old Insurance Twitter account, is the handiwork of hackers, describing the illegal act by the cybercriminals as unfortunate.

He disclosed that the Club has since lost that Twitter account to hackers and fraudsters and has since reported the issue to Twitter (X) Management, adding that the account is being monitored.

According to him, “The attention of the Chairman, Edo State Sports Commission Honorable Yussuf Alli, OLY and the Management of Bendel Insurance Football Club has been drawn to a statement and goodwill messages credited to Bendel Insurance FC and Edo Queens FC wherein the hackers and fraudsters claimed that Insurance FC and Edo Queens FC are in solidarity with the former Deputy Governor of Edo State on the old Twitter Account (@bendelinsurance) of our darling team, the Bendel Insurance FC and that of Edo Queens FC.

“The Edo Sports Commission and the Management of Bendel Insurance would have ordinarily dismissed the statement with a wave of the hand because everybody in Edo State as at today knows that Bendel Insurance cannot be loyal to the former Deputy Governor, in view of the fact that our loyalty is to the office of the Governor of the State ably occupied by His Excellency Godwin Obascki, but felt it is right to put things in proper perspective and set the record straight.

“For the avoidance of doubt, Bendel Insurance has since lost that Twitter account to hackers and fraudsters. We have tried everything we could to recover that account without success. We have since reported the issue to Twitter (X) Management and the account is being monitored.”

Alli continued: “That account is no longer in use by Bendel Insurance FC. We lost that account to suspected hackers and we have also created a new one instead.

“However, we have some of the social media experts loyal to the former Deputy Governor as suspects involved in the hacking of the old Twitter account. And we find it a bit awkward that the office and person of the former Deputy Governor will resort to hiring the services of hackers and cybercriminals to use government-owned platforms to send messages of solidarity to him.

“It is on this note that we urge the general public to disregard the statement and whatever messages that have emanated or would emanate from the reported old Insurance Twitter account.

“The hackers only tried to use the message as a means of pitching the Edo State Government against Bendel Insurance FC and the Executive Chairman of the Edo State Sports Commission Honorable Yussuf Alli, OLY but have failed in their mission.

“In as much as we will not join in the fray of name-calling, we view the resort to illegal use of a state football club social media handle by cyber criminals and all those behind it as most unfortunate.”

The Commission’s Chair added, “We sincerely appeal to Edo State Government, our hardworking Governor and the general public to disregard whatever messages emanating from that stolen Twitter handle.

“The present management of Bendel Insurance FC and Edo Queens recognize the fact that the clubs belong to Edo State government and could not have allowed their Twitter handles to be used to ridicule the government. We have no hand in it and it is not in our interest. We will continue to be loyal to the Edo State Government and its institutions alone.”