Businessman Tony Elumelu has expressed surprise over the loss of his verification badge on Twitter.
The blue tick verification process was brought in by Twitter in 2009 in response to celebrity concerns about impersonation.
Twitter chief executive officer Elon Musk announced earlier that users would now have to pay $8 monthly as verification subscription fee.
Mr Musk announced the final date for the free badge removal to be April 20, 2023. It was effected as announced.
Following the wave of removal of the badges from the accounts of high-profile personalities, Twitter Blue began trending on Thursday night.
Elumelu tweeted that he woke up to see that his verification tick had gone.
“Woke up to see that my verification tick has disappeared. Wahala!” The billionaire wrote.
Several of his followers immediately went on the comment section to tease him.
Politicians Peter Obi, Bola Tinubu Atiku Abubakar, and Shehu Sani are among those whose Twitter verification tags have also been removed.
Musk, who has seen his $44 billion investment in the site shrivel, described the blue tick prior to now as a “lords & peasants system.”
He added that the price could fluctuate according to country. Twitter’s Blue service operates in a handful of countries. It costs $4.99 a month in the US and in its current guise the service offers a narrower suite of perks such as being able to undo tweets.
Musk said subscribers to the new Blue service would also get priority in replies, mentions and search, which he said was “essential to defeat” spam accounts.
The changes would affect about 400,000 blue tick accounts overall on Twitter.
