Bayo Onanuga announces arrest of man behind fake Tinubu voice notes

Bayo Onanuga, President Bola Tinubu's special adviser on information and strategy, has confirmed the arrest of the person who made the AI-generated voice notes of the president.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that Mr Onanuga claimed in a post on X that activist Martins “VeryDarkMan (VDM)” Otse was the creator of the voice notes.

He then called for VDM to be prosecuted and accused him of spreading fake voice notes linked to the president. But many criticized Mr Onanuga after investigators found out that VDM did not make the voice notes linked to Mr Tinubu.

This newspaper checked the facts of the voice notes and discovered that someone else had tampered with them.

Arrest

Nine days later, Mr Onanuga released a statement on his social media pages on Thursday. He identified one Ifechukwu Dennis as the real creator of the voice notes.

He said that the authorities arrested Mr Dennis in Benin, Edo State. Mr Onanuga called this a step towards fighting misinformation and political lies.

He wrote: “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.

“Dennis was arrested in Benin. The police will issue an official statement.”

Backstory

This newspaper reported that the AI-generated voice notes falsely linked to Mr Tinubu claimed he allowed insecurity to continue in some areas for political gain. The fake audio also falsely claimed that the president asked former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi to step down for him before the upcoming presidential election.

In the voice notes, the person threatened to make insecurity worse in the South-east.