A suspected terrorist group on Friday morning hacked the official website of the Lagos State government, http://www.lagosstate.gov.ng, and that of the Court of Appeal, http://courtofappeal.gov.ng.
The hackers in a message posted on the two websites after the attack, described the Nigerian government as a terrorist.
The message read (sic), “In the name of God, Message to Nigeria Government and State Sponsors of Terrorism (USA, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar): Boko Haram and ISIS are terrorists.
“They are killing Muslims and innocent people because of your dirty money, hey Nigeria Government you killed thousands of Muslims and specially Zakzaky’s family too. You are all terrorists, You are all murders, God damn you!
“Allahu maulana wala mula lakum. Database Leaked: http://www.masiup.com/ur. http://wikisend.com/download/740694/lagosstate.gov.ng.rar.”
But at 4:36pm when New Mail Online tried accessing the website of the Lagos State government, it was blank, while as of the same time that of the Court of Appeal still displayed the message, indicating it was still under the control of the hackers.
As of 6.23pm when our correspondent accessed the Lagos State website, it was back online.
Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Steve Ayorinde, in a statement affirmed that the website was hacked but that it had been retrieved and that the bugs left behind from the hacking were being cleared.