Police Arrest Suspect Behind AI-Generated Tinubu Voice Note Shared By VeryDarkMan

The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has arrested Ifechukwu Dennis, who created and distributed an AI-generated voice recording falsely presented as the voice of President Bola Tinubu.

The development was announced on Thursday by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, through a post on X.

“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,” he said.

The arrest follows a controversy that began in late May after a manipulated video spread widely across social media platforms.

The video featured footage of social media personality Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan (VDM), combined with an AI-generated voice that sounded similar to President Tinubu’s.

In the fake recording, Tinubu’s voice appeared to make several controversial claims, including comments about insecurity in the South-East, the 2023 presidential election, and the economic hardship facing Nigerians.

However, investigations by several media organisations later found that the audio was not part of VDM’s original content.

Reports showed that someone had taken a genuine video previously posted by the activist and added the fabricated voice recording before sharing the edited version online.

Despite these findings, the Presidency initially criticised VeryDarkMan and called for action over the circulation of the video.

At the time, Onanuga described the incident as a serious misuse of social media.

His comments attracted debate after fact-checking efforts confirmed that the original video uploaded by VDM did not contain the controversial audio.

At the time of filing this report, the polics has not released further details about the exact circumstances of Dennis’s arrest or the specific charges that may be brought against him.

ALSO READ: “You’re A Very Stupid Old Man” – VeryDarkMan Replies Tinubu’s Aide Bayo Onanuga