A sworn declaration filed by the FBI in a US federal court has reaffirmed that Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was a subject of a criminal investigation involving the agency and the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in the early 1990s.
The declaration, filed Aug. 28 before the US District Court for the District of Columbia, forms part of an ongoing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit seeking access to US law enforcement records relating to Tinubu.
The FBI said the records sought in the case were ‘compiled in furtherance’ of its investigation of multiple individuals for drug-trafficking crimes, according to excerpts of the declaration published by Washington-based lobbying firm Von Batten-Montague-York.
Tinubu’s team has dismissed the claims surrounding the FBI records.
The firm, which has been retained by former Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar, said it obtained a large volume of records from the FBI and was reviewing and redacting some of the material before publication.
The latest filing follows an April 2025 ruling by US District Judge Beryl Howell, who found that public filings by the US Justice Department had already officially acknowledged that Tinubu was one subject of a criminal investigation involving, among other agencies, the FBI and DEA.
The judge consequently ordered the FBI and DEA to search for and process non-exempt records sought under FOIA.
The case was brought by Aaron Greenspan, who requested FBI records relating to Tinubu, including his entire FBI file and interview records from 1992 and 1993.
The records relate to a broader investigation into a Chicago-based heroin trafficking and money-laundering operation in the early 1990s.
The court’s 2025 ruling, however, did not find that Tinubu committed a drug-trafficking offence, nor did it amount to a criminal charge or conviction against him.
The FBI has continued to withhold or redact portions of the records, citing exemptions under US freedom-of-information law covering personal privacy, confidential sources, law enforcement methods and information that could endanger individuals.
Tinubu’s legal team has also challenged further disclosure of records in the case, according to recent court filings.
The renewed disclosure comes as Nigeria’s political parties prepare for the 2027 presidential election, with Atiku among opposition politicians seeking to challenge Tinubu’s administration.
Reacting to the development, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Public Communications, Sunday Dare, dismissed the claims as politically motivated and accused Atiku of using a Washington-based lobbying firm to create controversy ahead of the 2027 election.
Dare described the campaign as ‘a clinical demonstration of desperation’ and said the materials being circulated did not constitute an intelligence breakthrough.
‘The coordinated media blitz orchestrated around a Washington D.C. advisory firm is not an intelligence breakthrough; it is a clinical demonstration of desperation,’ Dare said.
He questioned the credibility of the lobbying firm’s representations, arguing that its statements should not be presented as the position of the US government.
‘The incendiary press releases being carefully churned out from Washington are public relations propaganda sheets passed off as the view of the US Government,’ he said.
Dare also challenged those making allegations to produce evidence supporting claims about classified intelligence.
‘Sane minds must categorically dismiss these reports as fabricated, politically motivated, and entirely unsupported by evidence,’ he said.
‘We demand that they produce the so-called ‘highly classified intelligence report,’ identify their unnamed sources, and provide tangible evidence for their wild allegations.’
He alleged that publicly available US Department of Justice Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) filings showed that Atiku contracted Von Batten-Montague-York, L.C. on a $1.2 million, 12-month retainer.
According to Dare, the arrangement was designed to ‘counterbalance’ Nigerian government narratives and use historical US judicial records for political leverage ahead of the 2027 elections.