The Presidency on Wednesday threatened legal action against popular social media commentator, Martins Otse, widely known as Very Dark Man, accusing him of circulating an AI-generated audio falsely attributed to President Bola Tinubu in which a simulated voice made inflammatory claims about insecurity in the South-East, World Bank borrowing and the 2027 election.
Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, made the threat in a post on his verified X handle.
This was in reaction to a video in which VDM played the audio to his followers and urged them to draw their own conclusions about its authenticity.
“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 wrote.
The audio, which bears the hallmarks of AI voice cloning, features a voice mimicking Tinubu making a series of damaging statements, including that insecurity in the South-East was deliberate, that he had called on Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, to step down for him in 2022, that he was indifferent to the suffering of Nigerians, and that loans from the World Bank were being channelled to fund elections.
In the video VDM shared, he told his followers in a mix of Pidgin English and English, “You people watch it, see this next video I’m about to play. After you people watch it, we’ll come decide whether na for shrine them cook una mind. All the people wey wan support Bola Ahmed Tinubu for 2027, you go come know whether they don cook your mind.”
After playing the audio, VDM added, “This man does not have anything to offer. Come 2027, any other option is welcome, but for me, myself and I, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu cannot offer us anything anymore. So he should go.”
Onanuga’s threat came via a quote-retweet of a post by an X user identified as Aneex, who had flagged the video with the caption, “How do you really convince someone who has already decided and believes in their mind that this is actually Asiwaju’s voice? What kind of cheap propaganda is this? VDM knows that Igbos are highly emotional people, and that’s why he enjoys riding on their emotions.”
However, checks by our correspondent revealed that VDM had no such audio in his videos.
Wednesday’s incident is the latest in a growing pattern of AI-generated fake content targeting public officials.
The Coalition for Ethical Technology and Democratic Integrity recently called on the Federal Government and security agencies to urgently criminalise AI-generated blackmail, classifying it as a national security threat and a form of cyber-terrorism, warning that deepfakes and fake content could threaten the credibility of the 2027 elections.
The FG had earlier warned the public against a fake AI-generated advertisement using Tinubu’s image and video circulating on Facebook to solicit investments in a Ponzi scheme, with the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria warning that violations would attract sanctions.
Nigeria’s Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention) Act 2015, as amended in 2024, contains provisions that criminalise the production and distribution of false digital communications designed to cause harm or damage to a person’s reputation, with penalties including imprisonment.
