Presidency Confirms Arrest Of Suspect Over Fake Tinubu Voice Recording

THE Presidency has confirmed the arrested of a man, identified as Ifechukwu Dennis, allegedly responsible for creating and circulating a fake audio impersonating President Bola Tinubu, by the Nigeria Police Force (NPF).
Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, who disclosed this in a statement sighted on Thursday, said the suspect was tracked and arrested by a special Police team in Benin, Edo State, adding that “the Police will issue an official statement” on the matter.
Onanuga added that the suspect had distributed the manipulated voice recording to unsuspecting members of the public as though it was an authentic statement from the President.
He also confirmed that another individual was arrested for allegedly making a false social media post concerning the security situation in Abuja, which he said had caused unnecessary panic among citizens.
Onanuga noted that the arrests send a strong warning against the spread of misinformation and reckless online content that could mislead the public or create fear, saying law enforcement agencies would continue to track and prosecute individuals involved in the spread of fake or dangerous information online.
He assured that government was committed to addressing misinformation and maintaining public order in the digital space.
The presidential aide had earlier accused social media influencer and activist, Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan (VDM) of creating the voice notes and called for his prosecution for allegedly spreading fake voice notes linked to the President.
VDM vehemently denied the accusation, urging security agencies to unravel those behind the controversial voice notes.
Investigators later established that VDM didn’t create the voice notes attributed to Tinubu, only for Onanuga to announce the arrest of the brain behind the notes, in which Tinubu was said to be claiming that he deliberately allowed insecurity to persist in parts of the country for political reasons.
It also claimed to have asked Peter Obi to step down in his favour ahead of the forthcoming presidential election, threatening worsen insecurity in the Southeast.
Many Nigerians have, however, expressed concern that security agencies appeared to have acted more swiftly in tracking the creator of the fake audio while at the same time finding it difficult to arrest kidnappers and bandits responsible for recent attacks across the country and even displayed their ransom loot in online video clips and video recordings.