A former presidential aide, Bashir Ahmad, has appealed to OPay Digital Services Limited to reconsider the arrest of Haifa Abubakar, who was detained over a viral post falsely claiming that the fintech company was shutting down its operations.

Ahmad made the appeal in a post on X on Thursday, saying Haifa had admitted her mistake and, according to his understanding, complied with OPay’s request to delete the post and apologise.

He said, “We all know that what Haifa did was wrong and virtually nobody supported her actions. However, I have questions about what happened afterwards.

“From what I have followed, after her tweet went viral, OPay only asked her to take down the post and issue an apology within a specified timeframe. My understanding is that she did exactly what she was asked to do; she removed the post and apologised.

“So, why would OPay still go ahead to have her arrested, particularly if she had complied with the company’s demands?”

Ahmad said he would have viewed the matter differently if Haifa had refused to remove the post or apologise after being asked to do so.

He added, “But if she did exactly what OPay requested, then I believe there are legitimate questions about why her arrest was still necessary, especially if the decision was influenced by calls from social media users demanding her arrest.”

The former aide appealed to OPay to review the matter, describing Haifa as a young woman and student who had made a mistake and subsequently complied with the corrective measures allegedly requested by the company.

He said, “I therefore want to make a sincere and strong appeal to OPay; please, kindly look into this matter again. Haifa is a young woman and a student. She made a mistake, was called out for it, and, from what we all saw, complied with the corrective steps OPay itself requested.

“If that is indeed the case, I believe keeping her in custody serves little useful purpose.”

Ahmad said condemning Haifa’s action should not amount to condemning her as a person, adding that accountability could be combined with compassion when a person acknowledged wrongdoing.

He said, “We can condemn what Haifa did without condemning her as a person. We can hold people accountable for their mistakes while still showing compassion, especially when they have acknowledged the wrongdoing and complied with the remedy requested of them.”

He appealed to OPay to release Haifa and allow the incident to end as a lesson rather than negatively affect the student’s future.

“OPay, please reconsider this matter. We appeal to you to have Haifa released and allow this incident to end with a lesson learned rather than a young student’s life being unnecessarily derailed,” he added.

PUNCH Online had reported that the Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre arrested Abubakar over the circulation of a fake notice claiming that OPay Digital Services Limited had shut down its operations.

The NPF-NCCC said Abubakar was arrested on September 4, 2026, after its operatives traced the false notice to an X account linked to her.

In a statement issued on Thursday by the Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Ani Iniedu, the police said that following the circulation of the notice, operatives of the NPF-NCCC commenced digital forensic analysis and online tracing to establish its source and identify those responsible for its dissemination.

The investigation traced the publication to the X handle @HAIFAH_ER_ABBA, linked to Abubakar, who was subsequently arrested by the operatives. (PUNCH)