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The Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI, has submitted documents connected to President Bola Tinubu’s 1993 drug-trafficking and money-laundering case to Beryl Howell, a judge of the US District Court for the District of Columbia.

According to Peoples Gazette, the FBI delivered the records to the court on Friday and asked that they remain sealed while the judge examines them.

The submission followed a court directive ordering the bureau to provide records concerning Tinubu after it missed several deadlines in a Freedom of Information Act, FOIA, lawsuit brought by transparency campaigner Aaron Greenspan.

Greenspan submitted the FOIA request in 2023 and subsequently worked with Nigerian journalist David Hundeyin in an effort to obtain access to the documents.

The FBI filed the records under seal on August 28, 2026, for an ex parte, in camera review, in accordance with a minute order issued by Judge Howell on August 20.

Howell had reportedly set August 28 as the bureau’s final deadline after raising concerns about its repeated delays and explanations for failing to release the requested records.

The latest development means the documents are now in the judge’s possession but have not been directly released to Greenspan, who is the petitioner in the case.

Earlier in the week, the FBI argued that making the records public could infringe on Tinubu’s privacy rights.

The bureau further contended that FOIA was principally created to facilitate access to government records and did not automatically require the release of information relating to private individuals.

Tinubu had also opposed the disclosure of the records, arguing that political opponents could exploit the information to damage his reputation ahead of future elections.

He consequently urged the court to uphold his privacy rights.

The case is centred on Tinubu’s dealings with US authorities during the 1990s amid allegations involving narcotics trafficking and money laundering.

Tinubu has generally avoided publicly addressing the controversy, which includes a 1993 case in which hundreds of thousands of dollars associated with him were forfeited to the United States government.

In 2023, the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois released documents detailing Tinubu’s dealings with American authorities in connection with the allegations.

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