Hafsat Abubakar arrested for creating fake OPay shutdown warning
Nigerian police arrested a 27-year-old woman on September 4 after she was found responsible for fabricating an official notice claiming OPay would halt operations.
The Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre arrested Hafsat Abubakar, a 27-year-old woman, on September 4 for creating a fraudulent document falsely presented as an official communication from OPay. On August 31, the cybercrime unit received a formal petition from OPay Digital Services Limited requesting an investigation into the creation and simulation of this fake notice. The document allegedly warned customers that OPay would stop processing transactions and account-related services starting September 1. Police officials deployed digital forensic tools to analyze the document before tracing its origin to a social media account linked to Abubakar. Three mobile phones were recovered as exhibits during the operation. This arrest marks a shift in focus from the viral rumor itself to the broader risks of misinformation within Nigeria's fast-growing digital payments sector.
