The Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre (NPF-NCCC) has arrested Hafsat Abubakar, an X user, over a post advising customers to withdraw their funds from OPay, a digital financial services platform.
In a statement issued on Thursday, Ani Iniedu, NPF spokesman, said the X user was arrested on September 4.
The false publication, which was widely circulated on social media, claimed that OPay would shut down on September 1 and suspend all transaction processing indefinitely, urging customers to withdraw their funds immediately to avoid potential inconvenience.
But OPay dismissed the claim as false and threatened legal action against the publication’s author.
Iniedu said operatives launched a digital forensic investigation and online tracing operation to identify the source of the hoax.
The force spokesperson said the investigation traced the post, published through the X handle @haifah_er_abba, to Hafsat.
“Preliminary investigation revealed that the suspect published the notice on her X handle and subsequently shared it through another X handle, @CUTE_HAFSERH, where she tagged social media influencers and accompanied the post with the caption, “REMOVE YOUR MONEY NOW,” the statement reads.
“She stated that she obtained the notice from a WhatsApp status. The publication reportedly recorded approximately 572,000 views within minutes of being posted.
“Three Apple mobile phones were recovered from the suspect as exhibits. Investigation is ongoing to establish the circumstances surrounding the creation and dissemination of the false notice and to identify any other persons who may have been involved.”
Iniedu said the suspect, along with any other persons found culpable, would be charged to court after the conclusion of the investigation.
