The Presidency has threatened to prosecute social media critic Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan (VDM), over the circulation of an alleged fake audio recording linked to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The controversy followed a viral video shared by VDM, which featured an audio clip purportedly mimicking the President’s voice. In the recording, the speaker allegedly claimed that insecurity in Nigeria would continue because many Nigerians refused to vote for him during the 2023 presidential election.
A post by X user, @Pious_minister, later alleged that the recording was generated using artificial intelligence technology.
Reacting to the development, the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, condemned the circulation of the audio and called for legal action against the social media influencer.
In a statement posted on X, Onanuga accused VDM of spreading false and misleading information online, describing the act as a dangerous abuse of social media platforms.
“This VDM needs to face the weight of the law for being the conveyor and disseminator of a fake audio of President Tinubu. This is a clear case of an egregious abuse of the social media platform,” Onanuga stated.
The presidential aide’s reaction came after another X user identified as Aneex questioned the authenticity of the recording and dismissed it as “cheap propaganda.”
The user further alleged that VDM was taking advantage of public sentiment to spread misleading content.
The incident has since generated widespread reactions across social media platforms, with many Nigerians debating the authenticity of the audio and raising concerns over the increasing spread of unverified AI-generated content online.