According to a report by Punch News, the Nigerian Police Force has arrested Ifechukwu Dennis, the man said to be the originator of an AI-generated voice note falsely presented as a leaked recording of President Bola Tinubu. Presidential Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, announced the arrest on Thursday via his official X account.
“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 stated.
The controversy erupted on May 27, 2026, after a manipulated video featuring social media activist Martins Vincent Otse, known as VeryDarkMan (VDM), went viral. In the clip, an AI-generated voice resembling Tinubu’s made inflammatory claims, including deliberate insecurity in the South-East, pressuring Peter Obi to step down in 2023, and indifference to Nigerians’ suffering.
Investigations revealed VDM did not post the doctored audio; an unidentified person had superimposed the fake voice note on his original video. The Presidency had earlier called for VDM’s prosecution before fact-checkers cleared him. Details on Dennis’s charges remain unavailable. (168 words)
