A clearly misleading Twitter handle on the bio page of Babatunde Fashola, Nigeria’s Minister of Power, Works and Housing, has remained undetected for nearly 10 months checks by Vigil360 has revealed.
The handle @FMPWHng, appears on the bio page of Fashola officially verified Twitter handle, @tundefashola.
The bio reads:
Honourable Minister of @FMPWHng;
Former Lagos State Governor.
Tweets from the Honourable Minister are signed -BRF.
However, a check on the handle shows it belongs to an Indonesian freelance model, Siva Aprilia Real, who includes UK-based soft-porn magazine, FHM, in her bio.
The model also runs her trade at Jakarta’s Smooth Club & KTV where she is billed for a ladies party this Friday which promises free Smirnoff Vodka for 4 ladies.
The handle ostensibly sought to reflect the official Twitter account of Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, @FMPWH.
The embarrassment is quite unlikely of the former Lagos Governor reputed to have deployed millions of naira in developing social media and ICT structures in his years as governor.
The embarrassment is worse on desktop view, with the avatar of the cleavage-baring model appearing just besides that of Fashola with a baby lifted on to his right arm
The Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing also referenced the embarrassing handle in a tweet on February 19 while reporting Fashola’s tour of South-South highway projects.
“Hon Minister @TundeFashola and @FMPWHng's whistle-tour of South-South Highway Projects. #FasholaSSTour,” the tweet read.
⚡ Hon Minister @TundeFashola and @FMPWHng's whistle-tour of South-South Highway Projects. #FasholaSSTour https://t.co/tREyribmbi
— Fed Ministry of PWH (@FMPWH) February 19, 2017
Fashola also retweeted his Ministry’s error.
Although social media stunts of this nature are routinely pulled to attract traffic to a user, it is inexplicable why Fashola’s official twitter handlers may resort to such stunts with a handle that has only124 followers when the Minister has 677,000 followers which is even higher than the model’s 598,000 followers on Instagram.