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🇳🇬 Nigeria /Crime & Justice

Police arrest suspect behind doctored Tinubu voice note

From The Punch · () English

Summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Official statement Outcome reported
  • Nigerian Police have arrested Ifechukwu Dennis for allegedly creating a doctored AI voice note impersonating President Bola Tinubu.
  • The voice note contained inflammatory statements and false claims about the president's involvement in political events and the country's suffering.
  • The arrest follows a controversy where the Presidency initially called for the prosecution of a social media activist, despite fact-checkers confirming the activist's original video was manipulated.

The Nigerian Police Force has apprehended Ifechukwu Dennis, identified as the individual responsible for originating an artificial intelligence-generated voice note that circulated online, falsely presented as a leaked recording of President Bola Tinubu. The arrest was announced by Presidential Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, via his official X account.

Onanuga stated that an "IGP crack team" arrested Dennis, who "originated the fake voice that he passed on to his gullible targets as President Tinubu’s voice." This development concludes a week-long controversy that erupted on May 27, 2026. At that time, a video featuring social media activist Martins Vincent Otse, known as VeryDarkMan, went viral. The video included an AI-generated voice, mimicking Tinubu's, making incendiary remarks.

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.

— Bayo OnanugaPresidential Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, announcing the arrest of the suspect.

The fabricated audio falsely claimed that insecurity in the South-East was intentional, that Tinubu had pressured Peter Obi to withdraw before the 2023 election, and expressed indifference to the suffering of Nigerians. However, investigations by multiple news organizations revealed that VeryDarkMan had not posted the doctored audio. Instead, an unknown individual had extracted footage from VeryDarkMan’s original Instagram video, superimposed the AI-generated voice, and recirculated the manipulated version.

Despite fact-checkers confirming the authenticity of VeryDarkMan's original video and the absence of the fabricated audio within it, the Presidency had initially called for the activist's prosecution. Onanuga had described the incident as a "clear case of egregious abuse of the social media platform." Further details regarding the circumstances of Dennis's arrest and any potential charges were not immediately available.

a clear case of egregious abuse of the social media platform

— Bayo OnanugaDescribing the incident involving the doctored voice note.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by The Punch. Summarized and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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