By Our Correspondent
The Leader of INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church, Primate Elijah Ayodele, has accused former presidential aide Lauretta Onochie and other politicians of allegedly manipulating his prophetic messages using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to promote political narratives ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The cleric issued the warning in a statement released through his media aide, Osho Oluwatosin, following the circulation of an AI-generated video on social media which allegedly portrayed him as declaring that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had lost his chances of returning to office in 2027 while suggesting that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar would emerge ahead of other contenders.
Primate Ayodele described the video as false, misleading and a deliberate attempt to misrepresent his position on the 2027 presidential election.
According to him, the manipulated video originated from individuals allegedly linked to Onochie, who served as a media aide to former President Muhammadu Buhari, and was designed to create a false impression that he had publicly predicted the outcome of the next presidential election.
The prophet explained that during the public presentation of the 2026/2027 edition of his annual prophecy book, Warnings To The Nations, held on Saturday, he deliberately refrained from making any declaration regarding who would win or lose the 2027 presidential election.
He maintained that he informed journalists at the event that he had not received divine permission to publicly disclose such a revelation.
"I never declared anyone a winner or a loser during the presentation of my prophecy book. In fact, I specifically told the journalists present that I had not received clearance from God to make that revelation public," he stated.
Expressing concern over what he described as the growing desperation among politicians, Primate Ayodele said it was disturbing that some political actors had resorted to deploying artificial intelligence to manipulate religious messages for political advantage.
He warned that altering prophetic messages to suit political interests was not only unethical but also amounted to an offence against the law, God and his ministry.
"I'm surprised at how Nigerian politicians have become so shameless that they now resort to distorting and manipulating my prophecies with Artificial Intelligence (AI) to push their own narratives," he said.
The cleric revealed that following the circulation of the video, he received numerous phone calls and text messages from concerned Nigerians seeking clarification over whether he had indeed predicted President Tinubu's defeat in the 2027 election.
He insisted that the authentic recording of his address at the unveiling of Warnings To The Nations remains available on his verified social media platforms and contains no such declaration.
Primate Ayodele consequently demanded that Onochie immediately delete the allegedly manipulated video from all her social media platforms and issue a public apology for what he described as the dissemination of falsehood.
He warned that failure to comply would leave him with no option but to institute legal proceedings against everyone connected with the creation and circulation of the video.
"The action of Lauretta Onochie is not only shameful but also criminal under the law and sinful before God. I have the original record of everything I said, and it is available on my official social media pages," he said.
"I call on her to immediately remove the videos from all her platforms and apologize for spreading falsehood against my person to avoid legal action."
Primate Ayodele also urged Nigerians to rely only on statements and prophecies released through his verified official platforms and authenticated by his media aide, stressing that any contrary material should be regarded as fabricated.
The controversy comes amid growing concerns over the misuse of artificial intelligence to create manipulated audio and video content capable of influencing public opinion, particularly in the political space, as stakeholders continue to warn about the dangers posed by AI-generated misinformation ahead of future elections.
