{"id":121271,"date":"2026-05-28T09:26:38","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T09:26:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=121271"},"modified":"2026-05-28T09:26:38","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T09:26:38","slug":"nigerian-presidency-targets-vdm-over-doctored-tinubu-audio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=121271","title":{"rendered":"Nigerian Presidency Targets VDM Over Doctored Tinubu Audio"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>2 Minute, 3 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>

NewsGhana, Latest Updates and Breaking News of Ghana, News Ghana, https:\/\/www.newsghana.com.gh\/nigerian-presidency-targets-vdm-over-doctored-tinubu-audio\/Nigeria\u2019s Presidency has threatened legal action against prominent social critic Martins Vincent Otse, widely known as VeryDarkMan (VDM), over an artificial intelligence (AI) generated audio clip falsely attributed to him that purports to show President Bola Tinubu declaring a firm intention to contest the 2027 election regardless of public opposition.
\nVDM\u2019s lead counsel, Deji Adeyanju, immediately pushed back, confirming the audio was doctored and calling on security agencies to investigate the actual source.
\nThe incident began circulating widely on Wednesday after footage appeared online showing what appeared to be VDM playing a recording in which a voice purporting to be President Tinubu also allegedly urges opposition figure Peter Obi to withdraw from the 2027 race. However, multiple commentators and online users quickly flagged that the audio was not VDM\u2019s own content but an AI-generated voice note placed deceptively over one of his existing videos by unknown third parties.
\nBayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to President Tinubu on Information and Strategy, responded on X by accusing VDM of being responsible for the content\u2019s spread, writing that \u201cthis is a clear case of an egregious abuse of the social media platform\u201d and calling for VDM to face the full weight of the law.
\nAdeyanju rejected that framing in a formal statement, saying a basic review of VDM\u2019s verified social media accounts would have confirmed he neither produced nor shared the original doctored content. He described the Presidency\u2019s public comment against his client without prior verification as surprising, and tied it to what he said was a pattern of attempts by powerful figures to suppress VDM\u2019s voice on matters of public interest.
\nThe lawyer instead called on the relevant security agencies to identify and prosecute whoever created and circulated the manipulated recording.
\nThe episode highlights a growing challenge for public discourse in Nigeria ahead of the 2027 election cycle, as AI tools make it increasingly simple to produce convincing fake audio and video of prominent figures. The speed at which the Presidency responded without first verifying the clip\u2019s origins has drawn its own scrutiny, with critics arguing the reaction threatened to criminalise an influencer for content he did not create.
\n NewsGhana, Latest Updates and Breaking News of Ghana, News Ghana, https:\/\/www.newsghana.com.gh\/nigerian-presidency-targets-vdm-over-doctored-tinubu-audio\/<\/p>\n

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NewsGhana, Latest Updates and Breaking News of Ghana, News Ghana, https:\/\/www.newsghana.com.gh\/nigerian-presidency-targets-vdm-over-doctored-tinubu-audio\/Nigeria\u2019s Presidency has threatened legal action against prominent social critic Martins Vincent Otse, widely known as VeryDarkMan (VDM), over an artificial intelligence (AI) generated audio clip falsely attributed to him that purports to show President Bola Tinubu declaring a firm intention to contest the 2027 election regardless of public opposition. VDM\u2019s lead counsel, Deji Adeyanju, [\u2026] NewsGhana, Latest Updates and Breaking News of Ghana, News Ghana, https:\/\/www.newsghana.com.gh\/nigerian-presidency-targets-vdm-over-doctored-tinubu-audio\/<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"registered_only","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18408,18409,1300,18410,18411],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-bayo-onanuga","category-deji-adeyanju","category-nigeria","category-nigeria-2027-election","category-nigeria-deepfake","post_format-post-format-link"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=121271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121271\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=121271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=121271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=121271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}