The Presidency has threatened to take legal action against Nigerian social media critic, Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan, over the alleged dissemination of a fake audio said to have been generated using the voice of President Bola Tinubu.
The controversy followed a post by an X user, identified as @Pious_minister, which showed an AI-generated audio of the President being played in a video linked to VeryDarkMan.
In the audio, a voice alleged to be that of Tinubu was heard saying that insecurity in Nigeria would continue because Nigerians did not vote for him in the 2023 presidential election.
Reacting to the video, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, said VeryDarkMan should be made to face the full weight of the law for allegedly circulating the fake audio.
Onanuga, in a post on his X handle, described the development as an abuse of social media.
“This VDM needs to face the weight of the law for being the conveyor and disseminator of a fake audio of President Tinubu,” he wrote.
“This is a clear case of an egregious abuse of the social media platform.”
However, checks reportedly showed that the said audio could not be found on VeryDarkMan’s videos, raising questions over the actual source of the controversial clip and whether it was directly posted by him.
The development has again brought attention to growing concerns over the use of artificial intelligence to clone voices, spread misinformation and manipulate political communication in Nigeria.
As of the time of filing this report, VeryDarkMan had not publicly responded to the Presidency’s threat.
