Police arrest suspect behind fake Tinubu AI audio, says Presidency

THE Presidency has announced the arrest of a suspect allegedly responsible for creating and circulating a fake audio clip falsely presented as the voice of President Bola Tinubu.

Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, disclosed the development on Thursday, June 4, in a statement.

“The IGP crack team has arrested Ifechukwu Dennis who originated the fake voice that he passed on to his gullible targets as President Tinubu’s voice. Dennis was arrested in Benin,” Onanuga stated.

The arrest followed a controversy that erupted last week over a manipulated audio recording circulated on social media and falsely attributed to the president.

The suspect had allegedly created and circulated the audio clip, which featured an AI-generated voice resembling Tinubu’s and contained remarks on insecurity in the South-East, opposition parties, World Bank borrowing, and the 2027 general election.

The recording gained widespread attention after some social media users, including Onanuga, wrongly attributed it to a video posted by social media commentator Martins Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan (VDM).

Reacting to the viral clip on May 28, Onanuga accused VDM of disseminating fake audio and called for his prosecution.

“This VDM needs to face the weight of the law for being the conveyor and disseminator of a fake audio of President Tinubu. This is a clear case of an egregious abuse of the social media platform,” Onanuga wrote on his verified X account.

However, findings by FactCheckHub later showed that the controversial audio was not part of VDM’s original video.

The fact-checking organisation found that the manipulated clip originated from an Instagram video posted by VDM on May 26 while reacting to comments made by content creator and philanthropist Mitchell “King Mitchy” Mukoro.

In the original footage, VDM had played an old campaign video of Tinubu speaking about electricity and governance ahead of the 2023 presidential election.

According to FactCheckHub, an unidentified individual subsequently extracted portions of the video and inserted a fabricated voice recording resembling the president’s voice before circulating the edited version online.

The manipulated clip retained the opening segment of VDM’s original video before switching to the fake audio, creating the false impression that the activist had shared or endorsed the recording.

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VDM subsequently dismissed any connection to the audio and criticised the Presidency for accusing him without verifying its source.

His lawyers, Deji Adeyanju & Partners, also faulted the Presidency’s verification process and urged security agencies to investigate those responsible for creating and circulating the doctored recording.

In a similar development, Onanuga on Thursday announced the arrest of another social media user accused of making what he described as an alarming post about security in Abuja.

“The police have also arrested this Nigerian who made an alarming post about Abuja’s security, spreading fear among citizens. By arresting him, the police have sent the clear message that reckless users of the social media won’t go scot free,” the presidential aide stated.

Mustapha Usman is an investigative journalist with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: musman@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M