The Nigeria Police Force has arrested a man identified as Ifechukwu Dennis for allegedly creating and circulating an artificial intelligence-generated audio clip falsely presented as the voice of President Bola Tinubu.
The arrest was disclosed on Thursday by the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, who announced the development through his verified X account.
According to Onanuga, the police’s special investigative team tracked down and apprehended the suspect believed to be behind the controversial audio recording.
“The IGP crack team has arrested Ifechukwu Dennis, who originated the fake voice and circulated it as President Tinubu’s voice,” Onanuga stated.
The controversial audio emerged online on May 27, 2026, and was attached to a video featuring social media activist Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan.
In the manipulated recording, a voice resembling that of President Tinubu allegedly made divisive comments on insecurity in the South-East, the 2023 presidential election, and the country’s economic challenges.
However, investigations by several media organisations and fact-checking groups later revealed that the audio did not originate from VeryDarkMan’s original video. Findings showed that an unidentified individual extracted footage from the activist’s Instagram post and overlaid it with an AI-generated voice recording before recirculating the altered version across social media platforms.
The incident sparked widespread reactions and renewed concerns over the growing misuse of artificial intelligence technologies to create deceptive content capable of misleading the public.
Earlier, the Presidency had condemned the circulation of the doctored material and called for action against those responsible. Onanuga described the development as “a clear case of egregious abuse of social media.”
The arrest of Dennis is expected to advance ongoing investigations into the production and dissemination of the fabricated audio. Authorities have yet to disclose the specific charges that may be brought against the suspect.
Police officials have not released further details regarding the circumstances surrounding the arrest as investigations continue.
