A woman arrested by the Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre over the circulation of a fake notice claiming that OPay was shutting down its operations has expressed regret and apologised for sharing the information.
The suspect, identified as Hafsat Abubakar, reportedly admitted that she reposted the notice without confirming its authenticity with OPay or the person who initially shared it.
Abubakar said she deleted the post and issued a public apology after OPay called her attention to the publication through its official social media platforms.
She explained that she only realised the seriousness of the matter after seeing her name and social media handle mentioned in a post by the company.
According to her, she apologised publicly on September 4 and later received a police invitation following a petition filed by OPay.
She said she was subsequently arrested at her home in Zaria, Kaduna State, and taken to Abuja in connection with the investigation.
The police said OPay had submitted a formal petition on August 31 through the Deputy Inspector-General of Police in charge of the Force Criminal Investigations Department.
The petition concerned a fraudulent document allegedly designed to look like an official OPay corporate notice. The document carried the company’s logo, branding and purported management endorsement while falsely announcing the shutdown of OPay’s operations.
Police investigators said their digital forensics team traced the circulation of the document to Abubakar, leading to her arrest and the recovery of three mobile phones.
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Abubakar, who said she was an OPay customer, maintained that she had no intention of damaging the company’s reputation.
She urged social media users to verify information before reposting or sharing it, stressing that she would not have published the notice if she had known it was false.
Expressing remorse, she apologised to OPay for the consequences of her actions and advised Nigerians to always confirm information before spreading it online.
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