Ghana President John Dramani Mahama has recovered his official X, formerly Twitter, account after it was compromised for 48 hours by cryptocurrency scammers.
According to the President’s spokesperson, the account was hacked on Saturday, but it was only noticed on Sunday when the hackers started posting endorsements for Solanafrica, claiming it was “led by Ghana’s President John Mahama to make payments across Africa free using the Solana blockchain.”
The hackers, using the account, encouraged the President’s followers to invest in the fake scheme, claiming it was a revolutionary scheme that would transform financial transactions across Africa.
Although Mahama’s team swiftly deleted the fraudulent posts after realising the breach, the account continued to share crypto-related content, including teasers about launching a new meme-coin.
“The President’s X account was compromised, and we have taken action to regain control,” the President’s Spokesman Kwakye Ofosu told AFP on Tuesday, March 18. “The account has now been fully restored, and we urge the public to disregard any suspicious cryptocurrency-related posts from the handle.”
President Mahama also confirmed the recovery of the account.
After regaining the account, President Mahama announced that he had appointed and sworn into office acting Inspector General of Police, Christian Tetteh Yohuno.
I’ve appointed and sworn into office Acting Inspector General of Police, Christian Tetteh Yohuno. #ResettingGhana pic.twitter.com/TOjZBkIoE0
— John Dramani Mahama (@JDMahama) March 18, 2025
But this is not an isolated case. In July 2023, South Africa opposition politician Julius Malema’s X account was hacked, with fraudsters using it to promote a fraudulent token project.
“Prominent personalities, especially those in government, need to implement stringent backend security checks,” Abubakar Issaka, a cybersecurity expert at Ghana’s Centre for Cyberwatch and Data Protection, told AFP.