The Presidency has officially reacted to reports making rounds on social media and news platforms regarding a ruling by a United States federal court, which allegedly ordered the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to release records tied to past investigations involving Nigeria’s current President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
This development stems from a recent court decision made by Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, who ruled that both the FBI and DEA must conduct a thorough search for, and process, any non-exempt records concerning President Tinubu.
The court’s decision came after an American citizen, Aaron Greenspan, filed a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) back in June 2023. The FOIA request sought access to documents from both U.S. agencies related to Tinubu’s alleged involvement in a 1990s drug trafficking investigation in the United States.
In her ruling, Judge Howell highlighted that both the FBI and DEA had not demonstrated a sufficient privacy interest to justify the continuous withholding of documents that might confirm whether or not Tinubu was indeed the subject of any investigation. The court further pointed out that this information is of significant public interest, outweighing any privacy concerns.
Notably, the court recalled that in 1993, Bola Tinubu was said to have forfeited $460,000 to the U.S. government, allegedly in relation to a drug trafficking case, a controversy that has continued to trail his political career.
In response to these renewed reports, the Presidency swiftly dismissed them as baseless, politically motivated distractions intended to disrupt governance and manipulate public sentiment ahead of the 2027 Nigerian general elections.
Daniel Bwala, a spokesperson for President Tinubu, took to social media on Sunday, April 13, to issue a strongly worded statement addressing the situation. Posting via his verified X (formerly Twitter) account, Bwala described the entire narrative as “mischievous and politically mechanized nonsense.” He suggested that opposition groups were orchestrating smear campaigns under the pretense of a U.S. court order to gain cheap political relevance.
He wrote:
“Mischievous and politically mechanized nonsense under the guise of US Court orders FBI and DEA to act. They claim the order was given on Tuesday, but it never saw the light of the media until Sunday.
There is nothing these opposition under the auspices of a coalition for a wild goose chase cannot try to do to keep relevance.
They even went to meet @MBuhari and it was reported that he insisted the meeting be held in or on camera so that Nasir El-Rufai would not go and say Buhari is joining SDP and PDP.
Hard as they try, they are still struggling to convince Nigerians that they have any plan at all, needless alternative plan.”
See Bwala’s full post below;
Meanwhile, as of the time of this report, no official documents from the FBI or DEA have been made public. While the court has ordered the processing and release of relevant records under FOIA, it remains unclear when, or if, these documents will be released into the public domain.
Political analysts have noted that this controversy, whether substantiated or not, is likely to fuel political discourse in Nigeria in the coming months, especially as opposition groups continue to mount pressure ahead of the 2027 elections. Tinubu’s administration, however, maintains that the renewed discussions surrounding these decades-old allegations are deliberate distractions and will not derail governance priorities or national progress.