Nigeria Lady Arrested Over Fake OPay Shutdown Notice Breaks Silence, Shares What She Did

• Hafsat Abubakar was paraded at the Force Headquarters in Abuja on Thursday after her arrest over a forged OPay shutdown notice
• Abubakar said she complied with OPay's ultimatum by taking down the post and publicly apologising on the same day
• The Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre traced the false notice to her X account and arrested her five days after her apology

Hafsat Abubakar, arrested in connection with the spread of a forged notice falsely claiming that fintech firm OPay was shutting down its operations, said she removed the post and apologised publicly on the same day OPay flagged it — yet was still taken into custody five days later.

Abubakar spoke to journalists on Thursday while being paraded at the Force Headquarters in Abuja. She said OPay's notice appeared on its official pages and tagged her X handle, @HAIFAH_ER_ABBA, demanding she take the post down and issue a public apology before 11:59pm on August 31.

"I took the post down around 8pm and made an apology before 11pm," she said. "I told them that I never knew the information was false. That was why I posted it on my page, and I regretted any inconvenience caused by spreading the false information."

She said there was no resistance on her part to complying with OPay's demands.

Arrest came days after apology

According to Vanguard, despite her compliance, Abubakar said operatives of the Nigeria Police Force came to her home in Zaria, Kaduna State on September 4, 2026, about five days after she had issued the apology.

"When I asked what my offence was, they said OPay had filed a petition against me and that they were also investigating the case, so I had to come to Abuja with them," she said.

The Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre (NPF-NCCC) confirmed the arrest, saying its operatives launched a digital forensic investigation after the fake shutdown notice began circulating online. The Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Ani Iniedu, said the NPF-NCCC traced the publication back to the X handle linked to Abubakar.

Iniedu disclosed this during a press briefing in Abuja on Wednesday, saying the investigation was aimed at finding the source of the notice and identifying those who spread it.

See the X post below:

Abubakar's warning to Nigerians

Abubakar used the opportunity of her appearance before journalists to caution Nigerians about the risks of sharing unverified content online.

"My advice to the whole of Nigeria is to first verify before posting anything, either posting or resharing. We have to verify it and stop posting," she said.