Arrest Made in Case of Fake Tinubu Voice Notes

Bayo Onanuga, who is the special adviser to President Bola Tinubu on information and strategy, has confirmed the arrest of the person behind the fake voice notes of the president.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that Onanuga said in a post on X that activist Martins "VeryDarkMan (VDM)" Otse created these voice notes.

He then called for VDM to be prosecuted and accused him of spreading false voice notes linked to the president.

But there was a backlash against Onanuga after investigators found out that VDM did not create the voice notes attributed to Tinubu.

The newspaper checked the facts about the voice notes and discovered that an unknown person had tampered with them.

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

He mentioned that authorities arrested Dennis in Benin, Edo State.

Onanuga referred to this development as part of ongoing efforts to fight misinformation and politically driven false information.

Onanuga stated: "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."

The newspaper reported that AI-generated voice notes wrongly linked to Tinubu claimed he allowed insecurity to grow in parts of the country for political reasons.

The modified audio also falsely claimed that the president asked former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi to step down for him ahead of the upcoming presidential election.

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