OPay: She Deleted Post And Apologised As You Asked, Why Arrest Her Again? – Bashir Ahmad Appeals For Hafsat

Former presidential aide, Bashir Ahmad, has appealed to OPay to reconsider the arrest of the 27-year-old ABU graduate arrested over a fake OPay shutdown notice, saying she had already complied with the company’s demands.

Ahmad, who served as media aide to late former President Muhammadu Buhari, made the appeal in a post on X on Wednesday.

He said while what the lady, identified as Hafsat also known as Haifa, did was wrong and virtually nobody supported her actions, questions have arisen over 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,” Ahmad wrote.

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

“I would have viewed the matter differently if Haifa had refused to take down the post or apologise after being asked to do so. 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.”

Ahmad made a sincere appeal to OPay to look into the 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.

“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.

“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, tagging @OPay_NG.

The lady, Hafsat Abubakar, a 27-year-old Library and Information Science graduate of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, was arrested by the NPF National Cybercrime Centre after OPay petitioned the police over a forged document claiming the fintech would go on indefinite break from September 1 and customers should withdraw their funds.