WASHINGTON / ABUJA — President Bola Tinubu has joined the United States government in asking a US court for more time to process and release records tied to a 1993 drug investigation.
According to court filings in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, lawyers for the US Department of Justice, FBI, DEA and for President Tinubu filed a joint request for an extension. They said the agencies need additional time to review a large volume of documents and carry out required redactions before public release.
The records are being sought under the Freedom of Information Act by transparency advocate Aaron Greenspan. The FOIA requests target documents related to a 1993 investigation in Chicago in which US authorities alleged that accounts linked to Tinubu received proceeds from heroin trafficking. That case ended with a civil forfeiture of $460,000 from accounts in First Heritage Bank and Citibank.
In supporting documents filed with US officials, the 1993 matter was described as the Department of Justice’s allegations relating to the then Nigerian president’s alleged involvement in a heroin trafficking investigation covering the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The All Progressives Congress has previously said the 1993 proceeding was civil, not criminal, and that Tinubu was never convicted. In 2003, a letter from the US Consulate in Lagos to the Inspector General of Police stated that FBI records showed no criminal arrest records, wants, or warrants for Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The court is now expected to decide on the new timeline for releasing the documents. The US government has earlier been ordered to conduct searches and produce non-exempt records connected to the investigation.
As of press time, the Presidency in Abuja has not issued a separate statement on the latest filing.
