Hafsat Abubakar, the 27-year-old woman arrested over the alleged creation and circulation of a fake notice claiming that fintech company OPay was shutting down operations, has explained that she deleted the post and apologised after the company flagged it as false.
Abubakar spoke to journalists on Thursday while being paraded at the Force Headquarters in Abuja.
She said she was arrested on September 4, five days after deleting the post and issuing a public apology following a petition by OPay.
According to her, OPay gave her until 11:59pm on August 31 to remove the post and apologise, which she said she did.
“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,” she said.
Abubakar said she was later arrested at her home in Zaria, Kaduna State, and taken to Abuja after police informed her that OPay had petitioned against her.
She explained that she had seen the alleged fake notice on X and shared it without knowing that it was false.
“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.
Abubakar also said she did not resist when OPay asked her to delete the post and apologise.
She advised Nigerians to verify information before posting or resharing content on social media.
“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.
The Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre had earlier confirmed Abubakar’s arrest over the circulation of the false OPay notice.
The Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Anietie Iniedu, said operatives commenced digital forensic analysis and online tracing after the notice was circulated to establish its source and identify those responsible.
He said the investigation traced the publication to the X handle @HAIFAH_ER_ABBA, which was linked to Abubakar, leading to her arrest.
The police said investigations into the matter are ongoing.