Police arrest user X for viral posts on Opay

The Nigerian Police National Cyber ​​Crime Center (NPF-NCCC) has arrested X user, Hafsat Abubakar, over a viral post advising customers to withdraw their funds from OPay, a digital financial services platform.

Police spokesperson Ani Iniedu, who announced this on Thursday in a statement, said user X was arrested on September 4.

The post, which went viral on social media, claimed that OPay would close on September 1 and suspend all transaction processing indefinitely. It urges customers to immediately withdraw their funds to avoid potential inconvenience.

OPay has denied the claims and described them as false, even as they threatened to take legal action against the authors of the publication.

Iniedu said agents launched a digital forensic investigation and online tracing operation to identify the source of the hoax.

A police spokesman said the investigation traced the post, which was published via the X account @haifah_er_abba, to Hafsat.

“Preliminary investigation revealed that the suspect published the notice on his X account and then shared it via another

“He stated that he obtained the notification from a WhatsApp status. The publication reportedly recorded approximately 572,000 views within minutes of being posted.

“Three Apple phones were recovered from the suspect as evidence. An investigation is ongoing to determine the circumstances surrounding the creation and distribution of the false notification and to identify other individuals who may have been involved.”

Iniedu said the suspect, along with others found guilty, would be charged to court once investigations were completed.