Hafsat Abubakar, the 27-year-old woman arrested by the Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre (NPF-NCCC) over the circulation of a forged document falsely claiming that fintech company OPay was shutting down its operations, has stated that she deleted the post and publicly apologised before her arrest.
Abubakar, a graduate of Library and Information Science from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, made the disclosure while speaking to journalists during her parade at the Force Headquarters in Abuja on Thursday.
She explained that after OPay issued a notice describing the circulating document as fake, she promptly removed her post and issued an apology on the same day.
“When I saw the notice immediately after they made it, I deleted the post immediately and rendered an apology on the same day. They gave me an hour to take it down and apologise before 11:59pm on August 31, and I did. I took the post down around 8pm and made an apology before 11pm,” Abubakar said.
She added that she was arrested at her home in Zaria, Kaduna State, five days later on September 4, 2026. “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 from Zaria, Kaduna State.”