The Inspector-General of Police Special Crack Team has arrested the man believed to be responsible for creating and circulating a fake audio recording falsely presented as the voice of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in what security authorities are describing as a significant breakthrough in the fight against digital misinformation.

The suspect, identified as Ifechukwu Dennis, was apprehended in Benin City, Edo State, following a targeted investigation by the elite police unit into the viral audio that had caused widespread public controversy and drawn a furious response from the Presidency.

The arrest comes weeks after the fake audio exploded across social media platforms, with the AI-generated recording purportedly featuring the President making inflammatory remarks about insecurity in the South-East, borrowing from the World Bank, and his plans for the 2027 general elections. The clip spread rapidly on WhatsApp and X, triggering intense national debate before fact-checkers and digital forensic analysts confirmed that the voice was artificially generated using deepfake technology and bore no authenticity whatsoever.

The Presidency had swiftly dismissed the recording as fabricated and called for the full weight of the law to be brought to bear on all those involved in its creation and distribution.

Presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga described the circulation of the content as a dangerous abuse of social media platforms, warning that the spread of such manipulated material posed a serious threat to public trust, national security, and democratic stability. The controversy had also drawn social media influencer Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as VDM, into the eye of the storm after a doctored version of one of his videos was used to create the false impression that he shared the audio, a claim his legal team firmly denied.

Police authorities are expected to release an official statement in due course detailing the full circumstances surrounding Dennis’ arrest, the nature of the charges to be preferred against him, and the scope of the ongoing investigation. The development is being viewed as a bold signal from law enforcement that the production and circulation of deepfake content targeting public figures, particularly the President, will be treated as a serious criminal offence under Nigeria’s Cybercrime Act.

The arrest is also likely to intensify the national conversation around the growing menace of AI-powered disinformation and its potential to inflame political tensions, particularly as the country edges closer to the 2027 general election cycle.