A public spat has erupted between Martins Otse, the activist known as VeryDarkMan (VDM), and Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, over an AI-generated audio clip falsely attributed to the president.
Here is what we know about the matter:
The controversy began after an audio clip surfaced online on Wednesday, May 27, 2026.
The clip, which mimicked President Tinubu’s voice using AI voice cloning, made several inflammatory claims:
That insecurity in the South-East was intentional
Tinubu asked Peter Obi to step down in 2022
That Tinubu was indifferent to Nigerians’ suffering
That World Bank loans were being used to fund elections.
VDM allegedly played the audio in a video to his followers.
In the clip, he said: “After you people watch it, we’ll come to decide whether na for shrine them cook una mind,” and concluded, “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu cannot offer us anything anymore. So he should go.”
Fact-checks indicate the AI-generated audio was not part of VDM’s original upload, WITHIN NIGERIA gathered.
An unidentified third party later extracted portions of VDM’s video and superimposed the fake audio, creating the impression that he had shared and endorsed it.
The clip bore clear hallmarks of AI voice cloning, and there is no evidence that the audio originated from President Tinubu or his office.
Onanuga took to his verified X account to condemn the spread of the clip.
He accused VDM of being “the conveyor and disseminator of a fake audio of President Tinubu” and threatened legal action, calling it “an egregious abuse of the social media platform.”
He argued that spreading unverified material threatens public trust, national security, and democratic stability.
The threat has sparked debate online.
Some users questioned whether the Presidency verified the clip’s authenticity before calling for prosecution, and raised concerns about targeting VDM for content he did not create.
