APC returns to Twitter with new handle after embarrassing drama

The ruling All Progressives Congress is officially back on Twitter, following some embarrassing incident at the weekend in which its erstwhile Twitter account was alleged to have been sold by President Muhammadu Buhari to a San Francisco resident, one Justin Sun.

According to the embarrassing tweet which trended for the better part of Saturday evening, Buhari sold the @APCNigeria Twitter handle to Mr. Sun for $2,000 when, as one of the numerous tweets claimed, Buhari was “very broke” and “needed money urgently.”

On Sunday afternoon, the President’s Assistant on New Media, Mr. Bashir Ahmad, announced that the ruling party has acquired a new Twitter handle, in addition to other social media pages.

“Our great party, the ruling party, All Progressives Congress (APC) is now officially on Twitter. Kindly follow @OfficialAPCNg. Also on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube,” Ahmad announced.

The storm may not be over concerning the ruling party’s social media presence, however, as the Twitter handle is not verified.

The party has also announced its newly-designed website and other official social media accounts. The party made this known in a statement on Sunday by its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi.

After several controversial tweets on the @APCNigeria Twitter handle, the account later tweeted that it was now being used for bitcoin advertisements.

“For the upteenth time, @APCNigeria is not the official Twitter handle of the All Progressives Congress (APC). In several official statements, we have disclaimed that handle. We view this latest development as a case of criminal impersonation,” Abdullahi said.

The new APC website and media accounts are: www.officialapcng.com; Twitter, https://twitter.com/OfficialAPCNg; Facebook, https://web.facebook.com/officialapcng/; Instagram; https://www.instagram.com/officialapcng/; and YouTube; Official APC Nigeria.

The APC said its new website will be regularly updated with news on party accomplishments and events.

Meanwhile, the creator and operator of the former Twitter handle (@APCNigeria), Philip Obin, said the account was hacked on Saturday, and that they were doing everything possible to recover it. “The account wasn’t sold,” said Mr Obin, a social network marketer from Cross River State.

“Twitter, as a company, has detail(s), and they know when an account is hacked. Anyone who is in doubt can also make effort to reach out to Twitter to confirm if the account was hacked or not,” he said.

Obin said he had put in a lot of time and energy at the expense of his personal business to see the account grow to become very useful for the APC to the extent that it helped the party win the 2015 presidential election.

The election is just around the corner, I also plan to use it as we did in 2014 and 2015. I don’t think I could spoil all that because of $2,000,” he said.

Obin, who apologised to Nigerians, the APC leaders and members of the party, said he takes responsibility for the embarrassment the hacked Twitter account has caused. When asked if the hacking has anything to do with politics, he responded: “investigations are ongoing, it would be hasty to give conclusion”.