Offensive Twitter comments not from Zahra Buhari – Presidency

Presidency has denied any affinity between, Zahra, the daughter of President Mohammadu Buahri and an alleged comment from a Twitter handle which made uncomplimentary posts about her “making” some foreign leaders.

Emanating from a handle @Zahra_Buhari, the tweet is feared to have raised a diplomatic row between Nigeria and her friendly states.

In a statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the president on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu on Sunday, the presidency said that the president’s daughter never made any such tweets.

The statement added that the Twitter handle, though once existed, had been been hijacked by hackers who many have used it for inordinate purposes.

While giving Zahra’s Twitter handle, the presidency hinted that even the wife of the president, Aisha and other of his children were not currently on the social media platforms, distancing itself from any messages that may be sent in their names.

The statement read thus: “The attention of the Presidency has been drawn to unauthorized and unexpected Tweets by an account falsely linked to Zahra Buhari, one of the daughters of President Muhammadu Buhari.

“Following enquiries by a few foreign missions on the raging online controversy about unsavory comments against some foreign leaders purportedly made by her, we wish to state categorically that Zahra is indeed on Twitter but the offending handle @Zahra_Buhari has stopped being her own for a long time since it was compromised by hackers.

“Tweets by this handle are therefore not her own and should be disregarded and considered as the work of hackers seeking to cause mischief between this country and other friendly states.

“Zahra’s authentic handle is @ZmBuhari and any handle other than this on Twitter should be considered as fake and therefore fraudulent.

“It also pertinent to state at this point that neither the wife of the President, Mrs. Aisha Buhari nor the other children are presently on Twitter, Facebook or the various other platforms.

“As they explore the possibilities on this new territory, we request the general public to ignore the many accounts on various platforms in their names that currently exist. Such accounts, beside the authentic one cited above in the name of Zahra are unauthorized and therefore fake”.