 to release information about Nigerian President Bola Tinubu.){kind=link}
The United States District Court for the District of Columbia has instructed the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to release information about Nigerian President Bola Tinubu.
The ruling was issued on Tuesday by Judge Beryl Howell.
This decision came after a motion filed by Aaron Greenspan, an American citizen seeking the reconsideration of a previous ruling. Judge Howell stated that withholding the information from the public was “neither logical nor plausible.”
Greenspan had accused the FBI of breaching the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by failing to release documents within the statutory time frame. These documents are related to alleged federal investigations into Tinubu and Abiodun Agbele.
Tinubu had been accused of forfeiting $460,000 to the U.S. government in 1993, with authorities claiming the funds were linked to narcotics trafficking proceeds.
This issue gained significant attention during the 2023 Nigerian presidential election when former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party and Labour Party candidate Peter Obi contested Tinubu’s eligibility to run for president.
The matter of Tinubu’s forfeited funds was central to their legal challenges, but the Presidential Election Petition Court dismissed the suits and upheld Tinubu’s election.
However, on Tuesday, Judge Howell partly ruled in favor of Greenspan.
The judge noted that the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) had failed to demonstrate that they properly invoked the FOIA to withhold the documents.