President Bola Tinubu has asked a United States federal court to reject efforts to release records linked to alleged investigations involving him in the 1990s.
The request was contained in a 16-page filing submitted by Tinubu’s legal team in an ongoing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed by American transparency activist Aaron Greenspan against several US government agencies.
Greenspan is seeking records from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and other agencies, including the FBI’s files on Tinubu and interview records covering the period between 1992 and 1993.
The case also involves records linked to a 1993 civil forfeiture proceeding in the United States involving about $460,000 associated with Tinubu.
Tinubu’s lawyers argued that releasing the requested investigative records could violate his privacy rights, even where some information connected to the matter had previously appeared in public records.
They urged the court to uphold the redactions and withholding of records by the FBI and DEA, arguing that the FOIA requests should not be used to obtain otherwise protected information simply because Tinubu’s name appears in the documents.
Tinubu has denied wrongdoing.
The case, filed before the US District Court for the District of Columbia, remains ongoing, and the court has yet to make a final determination on the release of the disputed records.
The proceedings concern access to government records and do not amount to a criminal conviction against Tinubu.
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