Bayo Onanuga, special adviser to the president on information and strategy, says police have arrested Ifechukwu Dennis, the suspect accused of creating an artificial intelligence (AI)-generated voice note of President Bola Tinubu.
In an X post on Thursday, Onanuga said Dennis was arrested
in Benin City, the capital of Edo state, by a crack team from the office of the
inspector-general of police (IGP).
“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,” the presidential spokesperson wrote.
“Dennis was arrested in Benin. The police will issue an
official statement.”
The arrest comes days after a controversial audio recording,
generated using AI and made to sound like Tinubu, circulated widely on social
media.
The voice note contained several inflammatory claims,
including allegations that insecurity in the south-east was deliberate, that
Tinubu pressured Peter Obi, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party
(LP), to step down ahead of the last general election, and that he was
unconcerned about the hardship faced by Nigerians.
“I’ve begged Peter Obi to step down for me. He refused. Now
I will make sure the insecurity affects only South East,” the voice note
claimed.
The audio gained wider attention after it was featured in a
video posted on May 27 by Martins Otse, the social media activist popularly
known as VeryDarkMan (VDM).
Reacting to the video at the time, Onanuga called for the
arrest of the activist, accusing him of disseminating false information.
“This VDM needs to face the weight of the law for being the
conveyor and disseminator of a fake audio of President Tinubu,” he wrote.
“This is a clear case of an egregious abuse of the social
media platform.”
The police have yet to issue an official statement on the
arrest or disclose the charges that may be filed against the suspect.
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