A U.S. federal judge has ruled that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) must release documents related to past investigations involving Nigeria’s President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and a suspected drug trafficking network from the early 1990s.
Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued the ruling on April 8, in response to multiple Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests filed by Aaron Greenspan, founder of the legal transparency platform PlainSite.
Greenspan’s requests, made between 2022 and 2023, sought information about a drug ring that operated in Chicago, and included inquiries into Tinubu and three other individuals: Lee Andrew Edwards, Mueez Abegboyega Akande, and Abiodun Agbele.
Previously, the FBI and DEA declined to confirm or deny the existence of related records, a tactic known as a Glomar response. However, the court ruled this approach invalid in this case, stating that public interest outweighed any claimed privacy concerns.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian presidency has dismissed the concerns over the judgment by the U.S. federal court asserting that the documents contain no new revelations and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The Nigerian leader, who assumed office in May 2023, has consistently denied any wrongdoing regarding the decades-old allegations.
© WAVN