Police Arrest Suspect Behind Viral Fake Tinubu Audio

The Nigeria Police Force has arrested Ifechukwu Dennis, the man accused of creating and circulating a manipulated audio recording that falsely portrayed the voice of President Bola Tinubu.

The arrest was announced by the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, through a post on X on Thursday. According to Onanuga, the suspect was apprehended in Benin City by a special police team and will face further investigation.

“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 stated.

The fake Tinubu audio sparked widespread debate after it surfaced online on May 27, 2026. The recording was attached to a viral video featuring social media personality Martins Vincent Otse, widely known as VeryDarkMan (VDM). The altered clip contained an artificial intelligence-generated voice that closely resembled that of the President and included several controversial claims.

The fabricated recording alleged that insecurity in the South-East was deliberate, claimed that Tinubu influenced Peter Obi to withdraw from the 2023 presidential election, and suggested that the President was unconcerned about the economic difficulties facing Nigerians.

However, investigations conducted by several media organisations later established that VeryDarkMan was not responsible for publishing the manipulated content. Reports indicated that an unidentified individual extracted footage from the activist’s original Instagram video, added the AI-generated recording and redistributed the edited version across various social media platforms.

Despite findings that cleared the activist, the Presidency initially pushed for legal action against him. Onanuga had earlier described the incident as “a clear case of egregious abuse of the social media platform.”

The arrest is seen as a major step in the investigation into the fake Tinubu audio, as authorities intensify efforts to tackle misinformation and the misuse of artificial intelligence in Nigeria’s digital space.