The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has confirmed in a sworn court declaration that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was the subject of an investigation involving drug-trafficking crimes in the early 1990s.
The declaration, filed on August 28, 2026, before the US District Court for the District of Columbia, forms part of an ongoing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case seeking access to FBI records connected to Tinubu. The FBI said the records were compiled during an investigation involving multiple individuals for drug-trafficking crimes.
The agency also noted that the court had already determined that there had been an official acknowledgement of an investigation involving Tinubu. The disclosure follows an April 2025 ruling by US District Judge Beryl Howell, who ruled that the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) could no longer use so-called “Glomar” responses to refuse to confirm or deny the existence of records concerning the president.
Judge Howell found that the agencies had not provided sufficient privacy grounds to conceal the existence of the investigation and ordered them to process records that were not exempt from disclosure under FOIA. However, the ruling did not establish that Tinubu committed a drug-trafficking offence or that he was convicted of a crime.
The latest declaration arose from FOIA requests filed by US transparency activist Aaron Greenspan. His requests included the entire FBI file on Tinubu and FBI Form 302 interview records linked to Case No. 245-IP-71386-UUUUUU between 1992 and 1993. The requests were part of a wider effort to obtain records connected to a Chicago heroin-trafficking operation from that period.
The FBI has continued to withhold parts of the records, citing FOIA exemptions relating to personal privacy, confidential sources, law-enforcement methods and information that could put individuals at risk. The agency said some details supporting its reliance on the exemptions could not be publicly disclosed.
Portions of the FBI declaration were publicised by Von Batten-Montague-York, a Washington-based lobbying firm hired by former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar ahead of the 2027 presidential election. The firm said it was reviewing a large volume of FBI records and released the document to challenge claims that Tinubu had never been the subject of a criminal investigation.
The development has triggered a political response from Tinubu’s administration. Special Adviser to the President on Media and Public Communications, Sunday Dare, dismissed the campaign around the records as politically motivated, accusing Atiku and the lobbying firm of attempting to generate controversy ahead of the 2027 election. Dare said the FBI documents should not be portrayed as a new intelligence breakthrough and stressed that the US proceedings did not establish criminal liability against Tinubu.
Dare also questioned the lobbying firm’s role in the matter and cited Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) filings which he said showed that Atiku contracted Von Batten-Montague-York, L.C. on a $1.2 million, 12-month retainer. He argued that the US FOIA case had been active since 2023 and that the FBI’s withholding of records was primarily linked to protecting investigative techniques, confidential sources and personal information.
Tinubu’s legal team has opposed further disclosure of the records, arguing that releasing personal information from government archives would infringe on his privacy rights. The dispute over what can be released is continuing in the US courts, while the political fallout is already becoming part of the wider contest ahead of Nigeria’s 2027 presidential election.
