Police arrest man behind ‘Tinubu voice’ recording

The Nigeria Police Force has arrested a man identified as Ifechukwu Dennis, alleged to be the originator of an artificial intelligence-generated voice recording that falsely portrayed President Bola Tinubu making controversial remarks and sparked widespread debate across social media platforms.

The arrest was disclosed on Thursday by
Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, who said police investigators had traced the source of the manipulated audio that was circulated online as a purported leaked recording of the president.

“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 on his official X account.

The arrest marks a significant development in a controversy that has dominated online conversations since May 27, when a viral video featuring social media activist Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan (VDM), began circulating on various social media platforms.

The manipulated clip contained an AI-generated voice that closely resembled Tinubu’s voice.

In the recording, the purported president was heard making a series of inflammatory claims, including allegations that insecurity in Nigeria’s South-East region was being deliberately sustained, that he had influenced Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi to withdraw from the 2023 election, and that he was unconcerned about the economic hardship facing Nigerians.

The controversial statements triggered outrage and intense public debate, with many social media users initially believing the recording to be authentic.

However, subsequent investigations by several media organisations and fact-checkers revealed that the audio had been digitally fabricated using artificial intelligence technology.

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The investigations further established that VeryDarkMan had not uploaded or distributed the doctored version of the video.

Instead, an unidentified individual reportedly extracted footage from an original Instagram video posted by the activist and overlaid it with the AI-generated voice recording before recirculating the altered content online.

The findings contradicted initial assumptions that linked the social media influencer to the fake recording.

At the height of the controversy, the Presidency had called for legal action against those responsible for circulating the manipulated content.

Onanuga had described the incident as a serious abuse of social media and warned about the dangers posed by the growing use of artificial intelligence tools to spread misinformation and disinformation.

The episode also sparked criticism after fact-checking organisations confirmed that the original video published by VeryDarkMan contained none of the fabricated audio attributed to Tinubu.

As of the time of filing this report, authorities had not disclosed details of the operation that led to Dennis’s arrest, nor had they announced the specific charges he may face.

The Nigeria Police Force is also yet to indicate whether additional suspects connected to the creation and dissemination of the manipulated recording are being investigated.