A man suspected to be behind the creation and circulation of a deepfake audio of Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu has been arrested, the president’s spokesperson said.

The authorities accuse Ifechukwu Dennis of creating a fake voice of the president that he passed on to “gullible targets”. It had sparked concerns on the rise of AI-generated disinformation content ahead of next year’s general elections.

He was arrested by a police crack team in Benin city, in the southern Edo state,” presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga said late on Thursday in a post on X social media.

The audio simulated President Tinubu's as making comments on the upcoming elections and insecurity in parts of the country. It went viral among social media users in the country and triggered a heated debate, according to local media outlets.

Mislead Nigerians

President Tinubu’s office had immediately dismissed the audio as fabricated and designed to mislead Nigerians.

Last week, the president's office urged Nigerians "to reject divisive propaganda, verify information before sharing, and remain vigilant against attempts to destabilise national cohesion through digitally amplified disinformation.

"As the political season approaches, desperate actors will continue to manufacture outrage, distort faith, manipulate context, spread falsehoods, and push dangerous emotional bait across social media platforms and WhatsApp groups in an attempt to divide Nigerians for political gain," it said in a post on X.