President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has asked a United States federal court to reject a request seeking the release of records relating to an alleged drug-trafficking investigation involving him.
The Nigerian president’s legal team filed a 16-page motion before the US District Court for the District of Columbia, arguing that records withheld by American law-enforcement agencies should remain protected from public disclosure.
The legal battle centres on a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed by American transparency activist Aaron Greenspan, who has been seeking records from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), among other US agencies.
The requests concern investigations dating back to the early 1990s, including a Chicago-based narcotics investigation in which Mr Tinubu’s name appeared.
Tinubu’s lawyers are asking the court to uphold redactions and restrictions placed on the records by the FBI and DEA, effectively preventing the full release of the documents sought by Greenspan.
The dispute has been ongoing since 2023. In April 2025, US District Judge Beryl Howell ruled that the FBI and DEA could no longer rely on so-called “Glomar” responses to neither confirm nor deny the existence of records relating to the investigation.
The latest development comes after the FBI separately asked the court for permission to submit confidential explanations for withholding portions of the records. The agency argued that disclosing some information publicly could expose sensitive investigative methods and potentially endanger individuals.
Judge Howell subsequently allowed the FBI to submit certain materials privately for the court’s review, with the agency, the DEA, the US Department of Justice and Tinubu given until 28 August to respond to the arguments over disclosure.
The case has attracted renewed attention in Nigeria because of its potential political implications, particularly as the country approaches the 2027 general elections.
Tinubu has not been criminally charged in the United States over the allegations referenced in the case. The president has previously maintained that the longstanding US matter does not establish criminal wrongdoing on his part.
The court’s eventual decision will determine how much of the disputed material can be made public and whether further records relating to the decades-old investigation will be released.
