The Nigeria Police Force has arrested Ifechukwu Dennis, the individual accused of creating an AI-generated voice recording that was widely circulated online and falsely presented as a leaked audio of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, disclosed the arrest in a post on his official X account on Thursday, June 4.
According to Onanuga, “The IGP crack team has arrested Ifechukwu Dennis, who originated the fake voice recording that he circulated to unsuspecting members of the public as President Tinubu’s voice. Dennis was arrested in Benin. The police will issue an official statement.”
The arrest follows a week-long controversy that began on May 27, 2026, after a video featuring social media activist Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan (VDM), went viral online. In the manipulated clip, an AI-generated voice resembling President Tinubu was heard making several controversial claims, including allegations that insecurity in the South-East was intentional, that he pressured Peter Obi to withdraw from the 2023 presidential race, and that he was unconcerned about the hardships faced by Nigerians.
Investigations by several media organisations later revealed that VDM did not publish the altered audio. Reports indicated that an unidentified individual extracted footage from one of his original Instagram videos and overlaid it with the AI-generated voice before recirculating the doctored version across social media platforms.
The arrest of the suspect marks a significant development in the ongoing efforts to trace the source of the fabricated recording and curb the spread of digitally manipulated content online.
