- A U.S. District Court in Columbia has ordered the FBI and DEA to release non-exempt records related to a past drug trafficking investigation involving President Bola Tinubu
- The ruling follows FOIA requests filed by Aaron Greenspan, founder of the legal transparency platform PlainSite
- The Nigerian Presidency responded, saying the reports have been public for over 30 years and do not indict Tinubu
A United States District Court in Columbia has ordered the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to release non-exempt records related to a past criminal investigation involving Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The ruling, issued by Judge Beryl Howell on April 8, 2025, follows a series of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests filed by American legal transparency advocate, Aaron Greenspan.
Greenspan, founder of the platform PlainSite, submitted twelve FOIA requests between 2022 and 2023, seeking records on a Chicago drug trafficking ring that operated in the early 1990s.
Among those named in the request were Tinubu and three others: Lee Andrew Edwards, Mueez Abegboyega Akande, and Abiodun Agbele.
Initially, the FBI and DEA issued what is known as a “Glomar response”, a tactic used by federal agencies to neither confirm nor deny the existence of records.
However, Judge Howell ruled that such responses were not justified in this case, stating that both agencies had already confirmed investigations relating to Tinubu.
The court found that any privacy concerns were outweighed by the public interest, emphasising that the agencies had failed to prove why secrecy was necessary.
“The FBI and DEA have both officially confirmed investigations of Tinubu relating to the drug trafficking ring.
“They have failed to meet their burden to sustain their Glomar responses and provide an additional reason why these responses must be lifted,” the judgment read
As a result, the court directed both agencies to search for and process responsive records that are not exempt from disclosure.
A status report on the case is to be submitted to the court by May 2, 2025.
However, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), also involved in the suit, had its Glomar response upheld after Greenspan conceded that the agency had acknowledged relevant documents existed.
In response to the court ruling, the Nigerian Presidency dismissed any suggestion of wrongdoing or novelty in the matter.
President Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, stated that the reports in question have been in the public domain for over three decades and contain no evidence of wrongdoing.
“There is nothing new to be revealed. The report by Agent Moss of the FBI and the DEA report have been in the public space for more than 30 years. The reports did not indict the Nigerian leader,” Onanuga said in a social media post on Sunday, April 13.
He also noted that the President’s legal team is currently reviewing the court’s decision.
The development adds another layer of scrutiny to long-standing questions surrounding Tinubu’s past, even as the Presidency maintains that the release of these documents will not yield any damaging revelations.
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