FBI confirms Tinubu was subject of US criminal investigation in 1990s

FBI confirms Tinubu was subject of US criminal investigation in 1990s

The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has confirmed in a sworn court declaration that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was a subject of a criminal investigation involving drug-trafficking crimes in the early 1990s.

The disclosure was contained in a declaration filed on August 28, 2026, before the US District Court for the District of Columbia as part of an ongoing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case seeking access to historical FBI records relating to Tinubu.

The FBI said the records being sought were compiled in furtherance of its investigation of multiple individuals for drug-trafficking crimes. The agency also acknowledged that the court had previously determined that there had been an official acknowledgement of an investigation involving Tinubu.

The latest development has revived a long-running dispute over Tinubu’s FBI records, which has been the subject of litigation in the United States for several years.

The case originated from FOIA requests filed by American transparency activist Aaron Greenspan, who sought records from US law-enforcement agencies relating to investigations connected to a Chicago-based drug-trafficking operation in the early 1990s.

Among the documents requested were Tinubu’s entire FBI file and FBI Form 302 interview records relating to an FBI case covering the period between 1992 and 1993.

The dispute reached a significant stage in April 2025 when US District Judge Beryl Howell ruled that the FBI and the US Drug Enforcement Administration could no longer rely on what is known as a “Glomar response” to refuse to confirm or deny the existence of records concerning Tinubu.

The court subsequently directed the agencies to search for and process records that were not exempt from disclosure under US freedom-of-information laws.

However, the court ruling did not establish that Tinubu committed a drug-trafficking offence, nor did it amount to a criminal conviction or finding of criminal guilt against the Nigerian president.

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That distinction remains central to the latest controversy. The FBI’s declaration confirms the existence and official acknowledgement of an investigation, but the publicly available material does not by itself establish that Tinubu was convicted, prosecuted or found guilty of drug trafficking.

The FBI has also continued to withhold or redact portions of the records, citing exemptions under US law relating to personal privacy, confidential sources, law-enforcement techniques and information that could potentially endanger individuals.

Tinubu’s legal team has challenged further disclosure of some of the records, arguing that privacy and other legal protections should be respected.

A member of the president’s US legal team, Senior Advocate of Nigeria Wole Afolabi, has also argued that an investigation does not automatically establish criminal culpability. He maintained that if US authorities had found sufficient evidence to prosecute Tinubu for a criminal offence, the appropriate legal process would have followed.

The renewed controversy has also become intertwined with Nigeria’s 2027 presidential election, particularly because the Washington-based lobbying firm Von Batten-Montague-York, which is working for former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, has publicised developments surrounding the records.

The firm said it obtained a large volume of documents from the FBI and was reviewing and redacting some of the material before making further information public.

Its activities have drawn criticism from the Nigerian Presidency, which has accused the firm of presenting political claims as though they were official positions of the US government.

Special Adviser to the President on Media and Public Communications, Sunday Dare, described the campaign surrounding the records as politically motivated and accused Atiku’s camp of attempting to use historical US records as political leverage ahead of the 2027 election.

Dare said publicly available filings under the US Foreign Agents Registration Act showed that Atiku had engaged Von Batten-Montague-York under a 12-month agreement reportedly valued at $1.2 million.

He argued that statements from the lobbying firm should not be interpreted as statements from the US government and rejected what he described as attempts to portray political advocacy as an official American intelligence assessment.

The Presidency has particularly challenged claims attributed to the lobbying firm concerning alleged intelligence findings, insisting that the firm is a commercial lobbying organisation and not an agency of the US government.

The controversy comes amid renewed efforts to obtain and release the historical FBI and DEA records concerning Tinubu, with the courts still determining what information can legally be disclosed.

The FBI’s latest sworn declaration is therefore significant because it removes ambiguity over one narrow but important issue: US authorities officially acknowledge that Tinubu was a subject of a criminal investigation connected to a broader drug-trafficking investigation in the early 1990s.

However, the declaration should not be interpreted as an FBI finding that Tinubu committed drug trafficking.

The available court material establishes that an investigation existed and that records were created in connection with it, while questions about the substance of those records, the outcome of the investigation and the legal significance of the information remain subject to the ongoing FOIA proceedings.

The development is likely to intensify political debate in Nigeria as the 2027 presidential election approaches, with Tinubu’s supporters and opponents expected to continue debating the significance of the historical US records.

For now, the clearest position from the publicly disclosed material is that Tinubu was officially acknowledged as a subject of a US criminal investigation in the 1990s, but the records disclosed so far do not establish a criminal conviction or prove that he committed a drug-trafficking offence.

FBI confirms Tinubu was subject of US criminal investigation in 1990s