The Nigeria Police Force has arrested a man identified as the creator of an artificial-intelligence-generated voice recording that was falsely circulated online as a leaked audio of President Bola Tinubu.
The suspect, identified as Ifechukwu Dennis, was apprehended by a special police team following days of controversy over the manipulated recording that spread widely on social media.
President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, confirmed the arrest on Thursday in a statement posted on his official X account.
According to him, the Inspector-General of Police’s special crack team tracked and arrested Dennis over the fabricated voice clip which had been presented to unsuspecting members of the public as the authentic voice of President Tinubu.
“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,” Onanuga wrote.
The controversy began on May 27, 2026, after a manipulated video linked to content creator Martins Vincent Otse, widely known as VeryDarkMan (VDM), went viral online.
In the altered clip, a voice generated with artificial intelligence technology and designed to resemble Tinubu’s voice allegedly made controversial remarks touching on insecurity in the South-East, the 2023 presidential election, and the hardship facing Nigerians.
Among the statements attributed to the fake audio were claims that insecurity in the South-East was intentional, that President Tinubu pressured Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi to withdraw from the 2023 race, and that the administration was unconcerned about citizens’ suffering.
The viral recording triggered heated reactions across social media, with many users initially believing it to be genuine.
However, subsequent investigations by several media organisations established that the controversial audio did not originate from VeryDarkMan’s original video content.
Findings indicated that an unidentified individual had extracted visuals from VDM’s Instagram video and later inserted the AI-generated voice before redistributing the manipulated version online.
Despite reports clearing the content creator’s involvement in the doctored audio, the presidency initially demanded his prosecution over the incident.
At the height of the controversy, Onanuga had condemned the circulation of the manipulated clip, describing it as “a clear case of egregious abuse of the social media platform.”
The presidency’s position later attracted criticism after fact-checkers confirmed that the original video uploaded by VeryDarkMan did not contain the fabricated audio attributed to President Tinubu.
As of the time of filing this report, security authorities had not disclosed further details regarding the circumstances surrounding Dennis’s arrest or the exact charges that may be filed against him.
The incident has once again raised concerns about the growing misuse of artificial intelligence technology and digitally manipulated content capable of influencing public opinion and spreading misinformation online.
