Election: Police declare war on AI-generated fake news

Ahead of the 2027 elections, the police have launched operations to track phone farms, where hundreds of mobile phones and automated accounts are allegedly deployed to create artificial online engagement and manipulate public opinion.

This is as stakeholders in the electoral, security, media and civil society sectors have called for stronger measures to tackle artificial intelligence-generated disinformation ahead of the 2027 general elections.

These were brought to the fore at a webinar organised by the PUNCH Media Foundation with the theme, “AI, Misinformation and Nigeria’s 2027 Elections: Safeguarding the Truth, Protecting the Vote.”

Speakers at the webinar, which was moderated by the Metro Editor of PUNCH Newspapers, Joel Nwokeoma, were the Inspector-General of Police, Tunji Disu, represented by the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Bashir Abdullahi; the INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of its Information and Voter Education Committee, Mohammed Haruna; the Founder of FactsMatterNG, Hannah Ajakaiye; the Director of Programmes at Yiaga Africa, Cynthia Mbamalu; and the Director of Projects at the Cable Newspaper Journalism Foundation, Mayowa Tijani.

It was attended by the Chairman of PUNCH Nigeria Limited, Angela Emuwa; its Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief, Dr Adeyeye Joseph; the Managing Director Emeritus, Sir Ademola Osinubi; Company Secretary, Omolara Ogunleye; the Head of Programmes and Partnerships at the PUNCH Media Foundation, Rebecca Erureh; the Head of Human Resources, Finance and Administration of the PMF, Gbenga Bambeke; and several members of staff of PUNCH Nigeria Limited.

Leading the charge, Disu said, ahead of the election, the police have deployed cyber-intelligence and digital forensic capabilities to tackle AI-generated misinformation, deepfakes, voice cloning and other forms of digital manipulation.

In light of this, he said the police have established an election monitoring room and commenced intelligence gathering ahead of the elections, adding that their cybercrime capabilities would be deployed to identify individuals and coordinated networks involved in malicious information manipulation.

He said, “The role of the police, apart from just policing national security in terms of violence and some crimes, is also to carry out cyber-intelligence gathering and monitoring of credible threats, as we are talking now, and identification of coordinated networks involved in malicious information manipulation.

“Digital forensic examination of AI-generated audio is already ongoing, and videos and photographic materials that are circulating on our social media platforms.”

Disu said the police had acquired cyber solutions capable of detecting deepfakes and other forms of AI manipulation with up to 99 per cent accuracy.

He identified AI-generated videos, photographs, audio recordings and voice cloning as emerging threats that could be used to falsely portray candidates, public officials and electoral authorities as making statements they never made.

He said, “Voice cloning, where you see criminals or political actors imitating their opponents or individuals to propagate announcements, endorsements, threats or inflammatory messages, the cyber solutions that the police procured recently can verify this information 99 per cent.

“If it is deepfake or other forms of AI manipulation, to that extent, the Nigerian Police is prepared to provide physical security also.”

He explained that investigations had uncovered coordinated attempts by some individuals to interfere with the electoral process through the use of such facilities.

“We have recently come across information regarding the coordinated effort being made by some individuals to see that they tamper with our elections.

“We were able to carry out targeted raids at phone farms. They call it phone farms, where you have bots that are arranged to manipulate and spread information at the same time, making you believe that a whole lot of people are talking about the same subject.

“Meanwhile, it is just an individual behind hundreds of phones, arranged in what they call a phone farm, so that they can manipulate the system. The police were able to disrupt this,” Disu said.

The IG further disclosed that the police had arrested a person accused of spreading false information about a candidate from the South-South, allegedly to influence voters negatively.

He said the suspect was identified following a complaint, investigation and digital attribution exercise.

“As I am talking to you now, we have somebody in our custody who came up with this kind of information regarding one of the candidates from the South-South part of the country, carrying information regarding things that were not done or that were in the pipeline and said that they were not done, just to predict voter behaviour and then make them behave in a manner that is negatively targeted to disparage these candidates,” he said.

He warned that the police would investigate and prosecute individuals found culpable of spreading false information, cyberstalking, criminal intimidation, impersonation, threats and incitement, where the necessary legal requirements were established.

Disu said the police had learnt from the challenges encountered during the 2023 elections and established the National Cybercrime Centre to strengthen their response to technology-enabled crimes.

He further noted that the police had engaged technology companies, including Meta and TikTok, to help identify those behind suspicious information circulated on social media.

He explained that the arrangement would enable the police to obtain information about the users responsible, establish where the content originated, request its removal and preserve evidence for investigations.

“We have made an effort now to shake hands with tech companies, most of the social media platforms, TikTok, Meta is the mother company of Facebook, WhatsApp, and what have you. So we were able to shake hands with them.

“This time around, whenever any information of this nature appears on our social media platform, we are going to immediately cross-check with these tech companies to tell us who is behind this information.

“So, one, we get the user particulars. Two, we get the location from which this information is coming out. Number three, request for it to be taken down and the preservation of evidence. And an operational team is on the ground to move to wherever this information is disseminated from to effect the accuracy and subsequent prosecution,” he said.

Disu disclosed that the police had already encountered cases involving voice cloning and deepfakes, including one in Benin, Edo State, where a suspect allegedly created a manipulated video of the President making statements he never made.

He said officers traced and arrested the suspect, who, when questioned, claimed he had created the video “just to trend.”

The police representative said the Force would not tolerate the spread of misinformation or disinformation capable of affecting the 2027 elections.

He added that the police had mechanisms to prevent, detect and investigate such activities, with the aim of bringing those responsible to justice.

Disu, however, assured Nigerians that the police would not use the fight against disinformation as a justification to infringe on freedom of expression.

He said the Force was adopting proactive policing, with officers expected to gather sufficient information before making arrests.

“If you see the police knocking on your door, definitely we have already gotten our information. It’s proactive policing. We are not going to do the reactive kind of policing; we must have gathered enough information regarding the conduct,” he said.

He said the police were mindful of the legal consequences of arresting people for expressing political opinions protected by the Constitution.

Disu said the police would preserve electronic evidence where there were doubts about the intention or potential consequences of online content, rather than automatically disrupting the expression of public opinion.

He further said the Force was working with INEC, the National Broadcasting Commission, the National Orientation Agency, civil society organisations, media organisations and other relevant agencies to strengthen information management ahead of the elections.

He said the police were also investigating offences such as cyberstalking, criminal intimidation, impersonation, threats and incitement, where the necessary legal elements had been established.

The police boss said the force would not interfere with legitimate public opinion or freedom of expression.

He said, “We are also carrying out investigations into cyber-stalking, criminal intimidation, impersonation, threats, incitement, and other offences, where the relevant legal elements are established.

“If they are not established, we cannot go out and disrupt the peaceful conduct of public opinion. We cannot do that.”

He said electronic evidence was being preserved to support investigations, while the police were also collaborating with international social media platforms to identify individuals behind malicious online activities.

According to him, the force had developed strategies for requesting the removal of harmful content, preserving digital evidence and obtaining personally identifiable information of those responsible for circulating such materials.

He added that responses from international technology partners could be obtained within minutes when such requests were activated.

On the protection of journalists during the elections, he said there was a directive to police officers not to obstruct journalists documenting electoral activities or seize their devices without justification.

He said, “The Inspector-General of Police said, ‘ Don’t tamper with people’s phones. So, because you are videoing somebody like this, the Inspector-General of Police said, I am not going to stop you from doing that, as long as you are not doing something wrong.

“Even to video the police, the Inspector-General of Police is saying, allow them to do it.”

Disu also said the police had commenced public enlightenment programmes to educate Nigerians on the dangers of digital misinformation and the possible consequences of abusing social media platforms.

He cited the National Cybercrime Awareness Week held in October as part of the initiative, adding that the force was taking the campaign to schools and marketplaces.

He urged Nigerians to verify election-related information through credible sources, particularly the Independent National Electoral Commission, warning against relying on unverified announcements about electoral arrangements.

“The preparedness of the Nigerian Police Force in terms of managing the forthcoming election is top-notch. We cannot be 100 per cent, but the country must be prepared to govern artificial intelligence,” he said.

In dealing with threats associated with AI, the INEC Commissioner Haruna said the commission had flagged officials in 10 states for disciplinary action over the uploading of AI-generated photographs to the national voters’ register.

He said the manipulated images had been removed, adding that the commission was working to finalise its AI policy to address emerging threats posed by the technology to Nigeria’s electoral process ahead of the 2027 general elections.

Haruna described the discovery of AI-generated photographs in the voters’ register as one of the challenges confronting the commission, noting that while it might be difficult to prevent members of the public from manipulating their photographs before uploading them, INEC had greater control over violations involving its personnel.

“We have already seen one of the challenges, which is that a lot of AI-generated photographs were posted onto the voters’ register, which, as we have said, we have had to take down,” he said.

He explained that the commission had identified cases involving its own officials and flagged those responsible for the violations.

“But the ones involving our own staff, where it is our own staff that did so, that one is within our control. We are in the process of addressing it. They have been flagged,” he said.

The commissioner disclosed that the affected officials had been identified across about 10 states and would face disciplinary measures.

“We have their names across about 10 states, and obviously, they are going to face disciplinary action,” he added.

On the commission’s preparedness to regulate the use of AI in the electoral process, Haruna said INEC had developed a policy but was still working to give it a final shape.

He observed that the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence had made it difficult for even advanced democracies to establish comprehensive regulatory frameworks for the technology.

“As you know very well, it is new territory out there. Even the most advanced countries don’t have what you might call concrete, specific policies about AI because these things are evolving,” he said.

Haruna, however, said the commission had developed ideas on how it intended to deploy and regulate the technology, adding that its policy would soon be finalised and made available to the media.

“But we have at least some ideas of what we want to do and how we want to use that. We have that policy. Very soon, we will concretise it, and we will be able to share it with the media,” he said.

Speaking, Ajakaiye said making accurate information accessible to Nigerians across different linguistic and cultural backgrounds would curb the spread of misinformation before, during and after the elections.

She said using local-language content and other interventions would ensure public opinion was not distorted, and citizens could make informed judgments regarding political discourse.

“The answer is strategic communication. It is not just about pre-bunking or explaining how to identify AI-created images; we must also look at using local languages.

“In this country, we speak a lot of English, but the people who often fall victim to manipulated information are not interested in long, complex grammar. Can we step down and produce pre-bunks or media literacy content in languages they understand? Can we use voices they actually relate to?”

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Ajakaiye said AI-generated images, videos, audio recordings and misleading online reports could make it increasingly difficult for the public to distinguish genuine information from fabricated content.

She stressed the need for media literacy education in local languages to ensure communities, particularly those with limited access to credible fact-checking platforms, were adequately informed.

She also called for partnerships with content creators to develop and disseminate media literacy content in local languages.

“When you look at the current media ecosystem, there is heavy infiltration by content creators and social media influencers. Can we explore partnering with those influencers to turn them into trustworthy voices, or teach them how to verify content and refer their audiences to trusted sources before making claims?

“We should not focus solely on how these pieces of content are created, because in the coming days, it is going to get even more complicated. We must focus on strategic communication as an intervention to help people exercise good judgment and identify synthetic content,” she said.

She added that journalists must pay close attention to the timing, origin and quality of information, particularly audio recordings, videos and images circulated shortly before elections.

Giving insight into frontline verification, synthetic content and information integrity, Ajakaiye said the timing of a suspicious publication could provide an important clue to its credibility.

She said, “The timing of the content is critical. If an election is imminent and on the eve of the election, someone pushes out an audio clip, video, or manipulated image, the timing is very important, and that should raise red flags.

“You must be sure of the origin. You cannot simply rely on something forwarded on WhatsApp; you have to trace it to its primary source.”

Ajakaiye also urged journalists to contact relevant institutions directly to authenticate claims rather than rushing to publish unverified material in a bid to break the news.

She said, “Before pushing content out in a rush to break the news, journalists must reach out to the relevant institutions to verify. In this context, you reach out directly to INEC. In my organisation, there have been times when we had to step down a story to verify it first, rather than risking our reputation.”

She said journalists should also be cautious of messages designed to create panic or pressure recipients into sharing information immediately, noting that such tactics could be used to spread manipulated content.

“Be wary of content that pressures you to act immediately—messages containing phrases like “Share this right now!” or “Share before it gets deleted!” For non-journalists, if you see a prompt urging you to urgently click or share a specific link, that sense of urgency and emotional triggers are something to watch out for,” she said.

The FactsMatterNG founder further recommended checking whether credible media organisations or official institutions had already debunked a claim before treating it as factual.

“Check whether credible media platforms or official institutions have already debunked the claim. In many instances, deepfake productions are low quality. If it is audio, listen closely for unnatural pauses, muffled tones, or inconsistent tracks, which indicate that different audio clips were spliced together. Low-quality audio, or content published without a clear, traceable source, are all signs to stop and verify before publishing,” she said.

On her part, Yiaga Africa’s Mbamalu said INEC must provide accurate and timely information on the electoral process to prevent AI-enabled disinformation from eroding public confidence and discouraging voter participation ahead of the 2027 general elections.

Mbamalu warned that deliberate attempts to mislead voters posed a greater threat than misinformation shared unknowingly, urging the electoral commission to adopt proactive communication and establish clear channels through which citizens could verify election-related information.

She said public trust was critical to electoral participation, warning that citizens who lost confidence in the process were less likely to participate.

“When people are confident, then they are more inspired to participate. When they don’t trust the system, they are less inspired to participate. And I always say this: trust is a currency for electoral participation. For citizens, especially Nigerians, we already operate in a context where we naturally have a major trust issue as a people. This is a country where we ordinarily do not trust each other, so we struggle with trust.

“When it comes to the electoral process, if there is anything that anyone targets, if you want to limit participation or affect how citizens engage, the major target is trust and confidence, which is why we are having this conversation on AI and misinformation,” she said.

Mbamalu further noted that the growing use of digitally manipulated content made it necessary for electoral stakeholders to strengthen information integrity before, during and after elections.

She explained that the country currently faced a bigger challenge of disinformation, which involves deliberate attempts to deceive and manipulate the public.

Mbamalu said building public confidence required the provision of reliable information, especially by the electoral commission, which she urged not to remain passive in the face of emerging threats.

“If the currency of all citizens’ participation is trust, then the first thing is to build trust and to build confidence. And what is the one important way of doing that? Provide accurate, timely information on the process. And as a civil society organisation and as observer groups working, our role first is to provide accurate information, which is why most of us conduct pre-election observation.

“But for the electoral commission in this process, INEC cannot be a silent or passive participant. INEC has, in fact, the most important role of being forthright and being proactive and timely with information, because it’s easier to pre-bunk than debunk,” she said.

Mbamalu said proactive communication should go beyond publishing information on social media or using traditional media, urging INEC to inform citizens where and when they could obtain credible information.

“Now, providing timely information is not just about putting posts on social media platforms or leveraging traditional media. It’s also about providing information to citizens on where and when to access credible information. What we need from the electoral commission is a clear timeline on how INEC would provide information to citizens. We need to see that level of robustness in their communication strategy.

“For some countries in Africa, ahead of the elections we see a clear schedule on how many times the commission will have press briefings. So citizens know when to wait and when to listen for the commission to speak. That way, it allows voters or citizens to look for it, to focus on the single source of truth for the election, which is the electoral commission first. So providing information for me is not just how we provide information for the commission, but the timeliness, the method, the channels leveraged to provide information.”

Mbamalu also urged INEC, the media and security agencies to develop response plans for possible threats to information integrity ahead of the elections.

“To the electoral commission, what is very important is emphasis on proactive communication, timely communication, and ensuring we are pre-bunking because it is easier than debunking when it comes to elections,” the human rights advocate emphasised.

She said stakeholders should identify potential scenarios, including the circulation of deepfake videos or fabricated announcements about changes to election dates, and agree on the actions required to address them.

She stressed that protecting the integrity of election-related information was a shared responsibility and should not be left to INEC alone.

The director further called for stronger digital literacy among voters, media practitioners and civil society organisations to teach citizens how to identify false information and avoid actions that could make it trend.

She also urged civil society organisations and election observers using technology to strengthen collaboration and develop a code of conduct to guide their activities during the electoral process.

Media practitioners, she added, also needed clear guidelines on how to handle election-related information to avoid inadvertently amplifying false claims.

She warned that the spread of disinformation could weaken public confidence in the electoral process and affect citizens’ willingness to vote.

Mbamalu also spoke on the need for INEC to improve the digital literacy of staff managing its information technology departments and social media platforms to enable the commission to respond effectively to emerging threats.

She said the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence required electoral officials to acquire the technical knowledge needed to identify manipulated content and deploy appropriate tools to counter it.

“We are working with an electoral commission that is existing in a space that is evolving fast. The artificial intelligence-based ecosystem is evolving really fast, and so there is a need for internal capacity building, especially with respect to personnel managing the IT departments of the commission and even the social media platforms of the commission,” she said.

Mbamalu added that INEC needed to equip its personnel with the knowledge to use AI tools to detect and counter manipulated content.

“Digital literacy is key, not just digital literacy to understand, but also how to leverage AI tools to counter. As I said, they use AI to find AI sometimes, and so that level of information is needed,” she said.

She also urged the commission to improve its response to misleading information, citing the controversy surrounding images purportedly taken from the voters’ register.

According to her, some people circulated images that were not from the register amid concerns about fictitious information, making it necessary for INEC to provide timely clarification.

“The other is also the response to issues as they come up. And I always give an example of the voter register. That was the most important issue that happened recently.

”While there were issues of fictitious information, some people immediately started creating images that were not from the voter register, and we expected INEC to respond to those kinds of information because once you remain silent, those things become viral,” she said.

The Yiaga Africa director said INEC could engage additional technical personnel or external support to help manage the information space ahead of the elections.

She further advised the commission to provide clarification rather than issue outright denials whenever concerns arose, noting that delayed explanations could undermine public trust.

“If there is an issue, you respond and, rather than deny, provide clarity. But if there is something that is clearly fake, you provide the alternative truth to it,” she said.

Mbamalu also raised concerns about the application of the Cybercrimes Act, warning that journalists and citizens expressing opinions could become victims if the law was applied unfairly.

She called on the police to protect freedom of expression and press freedom while enforcing the law.

“The call is for fairness in application of the rules and, most importantly, that even in applying the provisions of the Cybercrimes Act, there’s a focus on the fundamental rights of freedom of expression,” she said.

She added that some citizens had faced consequences for sharing information that was not misinformation but was considered offensive by its recipients.

The webinar also featured calls on journalists to strengthen their verification processes and newsrooms to establish clear policies on the use of AI as part of efforts to combat AI-manipulated content and misinformation.

Tijani warned that the 2027 elections could witness more sophisticated attempts to manipulate information than previous electoral cycles.

Tijani, who spoke on AI, election reporting, newsroom standards and editorial trust during the webinar, said the widespread adoption of AI had increased the potential for manipulated content.

He said, “One of the things that is obvious to me and has been revealing itself a lot more as we got closer to the elections is that we are going to see a lot more manipulations than we have seen before.

“During the 2023 elections, it was just a year AI went mainstream, and now we have three years in which AI has been widely adopted.”

He called on media organisations to develop and publicly disclose clear policies explaining how they use AI in their newsrooms, arguing that such guidelines would help audiences understand the role of the technology in news production.

“One of the things that we need to do, and I can recommend this very strongly, and this is a conversation that has been going on among newsroom leaders in the last couple of months, is that the majority of the newsrooms in Nigeria, possibly every newsroom in Nigeria, should have a public, task-specific disclosure of AI policy that clearly explains to their audience what they use AI for, where they use AI,” he said.

Tijani said the absence of clear policies had created inconsistencies in how journalists and editors approached the use of AI, sometimes leaving different members of the same newsroom with conflicting standards.

He said, “One of the primary issues we face is the absence of policy. Different newsrooms are held to different standards, and even within the same newsroom, some people are singing under different hymn sheets. So we have a situation in the newsroom where a certain person believes it’s fine to use AI to write news.

“Even within a newsroom, different people are singing from different hymn sheets, and so we have a situation where a certain person in the newsroom believes that it’s fine to use AI to write the story, and another person in that same newsroom believes that AI should not be used in this particular instance.”

He noted that audiences were not necessarily opposed to media organisations using AI but wanted transparency about the purposes for which the technology was deployed and how it influenced published reports.

“What they basically want to know is what you’re using it for. They want that specific disclosure on the use of AI, because one of the things that happens when we don’t do that is that we ourselves can then be the source of misinformation,” he said.

Tijani advocated that media organisations should publish their AI policies well ahead of the elections to give newsrooms and audiences sufficient time to understand the guidelines before the heightened political activities associated with the polls.

He also distinguished between tasks that AI could support and responsibilities that required human editorial judgement, stressing that the final decision on what gets published must remain with journalists and editors.

“So I think that much of our writing work, transcription, and a lot of the work that journalists do basically can be well done by AI. Now, the part of our work that is not easily done by AI is the part of judgement, human judgement, and I feel like that’s where much of the editorial burden should be at this time.

“So as long as there is the human in the loop who has editorial judgement, I think that a lot of the risk that we naturally face with AI use is sort of removed,” Tijani said.