The President Bola Tinubu administration on Thursday said the man who created and circulated a fake voice note attributed to the president has been arrested, even as security agencies struggle to rescue abducted Oyo schoolchildren.

Bayo Onanuga, spokesperson for the president, announced the arrest of Ifechukwu Dennis in a post on X on Thursday in Benin City, Edo State.

“The IGP crack team has arrested Ifechukwu Dennis, who originated the fake voice that he passed on to his gullible targets as President Tinubu’s voice,” Mr Onanuga said.

The presidential spokesperson said, “Dennis was arrested in Benin. The police will issue an official statement.” 

The fake Tinubu audio surfaced online last week, sparking a reaction from the presidency.

In the fake audio, Mr Tinubu allegedly vowed to win the 2027 election at all costs. 

The audio also featured a doctored video of Marthin Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan, superimposed to make it appear as if VDM leaked the audio. 

After the audio went viral last week, Mr Onanuga falsely accused VDM of being its mastermind, calling for his arrest.

However, his announcement on Thursday contradicted his earlier call for VDM’s arrest. 

Meanwhile, 46 schoolchildren in Oyo have been languishing in their abductors’ den for over two weeks since they were abducted on May 15.

Also, another 40 students abducted in Borno State are still in captivity.

Mr Onanuga’s statement has elicited reactions from Nigerians who wonder how the Nigerian Police could track down the mastermind of Tinubu’s fake audio, while terrorists and bandits keep schoolchildren in captivity.

An X user, @ArchUchenna, said, “Bandits can’t be tracked, but citizens can be tracked on the slightest comments? Boko Haram is having a day party and wedding reception, Bandits can host a tournament, even kidnap an entire community, and they can’t be tracked. Wicked and shameless government.”

“So how did they find him? I thought Nigeria’s security forces had no intelligence on tracking and finding people. So that means it is true the government is enabling bandits to kill and suffer the citizens. If not, how did the police track and find him?” @uche8339434 said.

Another X user, @Baaji_e, said, “The way the IGP crack team was able to arrest a fake voice of President Tinubu but is unable to track and arrest Terrorists kidnapping and slaughtering Nigerians needs to be studied.”