The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has confirmed the arrest of a 27-year-old Nigerian lady, Hafsat Abubakar, who is believed to be behind the viral OPay shutdown tweet, according to a report by Channels.
The National Cybercrime Centre (NCC), an arm of the NPF, effected the arrest following a petition by OPay, after Abubakar circulated a forged document purporting to be information from the fintech company.
Force Public Relations Officer, Anietie Iniedu, said the Nigeria Police received a formal petition from OPay on August 31st, 2026, to investigate and apprehend persons involved in the creation and circulation of a fraudulent document falsely presented as an official communication issued by OPay Nigeria Limited.
According to Iniedu, upon official receipt of the request, the NPF NCCC deployed digital forensic tools to analyse the content, and the investigation traced the post to an X account with the handle @haifah_er_abba, registered and operated by one Hafsat Abubakar.
“On September 4th 2026, Police operatives of the NCC arrested one Abubakar, a 27-year-old female graduate of Library and Information Science from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State,” Iniedu said.
Backstory
On August 30th, 2025, a tweet announcing that OPay was embarking on an indefinite break flooded social media. It became the subject of discussion on numerous WhatsApp groups and X, where it amassed over 2 million impressions.
OPay later denied the report, stressing that it didn’t originate from the company, and lamented that the tweet had caused irreparable damage to its business.
In response, OPay convened a town hall meeting, inviting journalists, social media influencers, partners and other stakeholders to help combat the false narrative that the fintech was shutting down.
The lady behind the viral tweet later deleted her post and issued a public apology to OPay, but it doesn’t in any way fix the damage that her careless tweet has caused.
OPay promised to pursue legal redress, and this arrest appears to be the first step in that direction.
