Legal Battle in US as FBI and State Department Withhold Release of Tinubu’s Criminal Cases and Immigration Records Until 2026.
President Bola Tinubu‘s criminal and immigration records, currently held by the United States, will remain undisclosed until 2026, according to court documents obtained by Ejes Gist News Nigeria.
In a surprising turn of events, the U.S. State Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) cited “unusual circumstances” as the reason for withholding the release of the records to the public.
Even if they were to release the information, the authorities stated that it would not be possible until at least January 2026.
This development has led to the filing of a civil lawsuit before Judge Beryl Howell in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Washington, D.C.
Aaron Greenspan, an American public disclosure activist, initiated the lawsuit by submitting a request to various agencies, including the FBI, State Department, Department of Treasury, and Drug Enforcement Administration. He urgently sought the release of President Tinubu’s immigration and criminal records.
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President Tinubu, meanwhile, has maintained his innocence in court, asserting that he has not committed any crimes during his extensive residency in the United States. Despite this claim, there are indications that he may have changed names and altered his education records in the past, raising questions about his true identity.
Notably, President Tinubu’s identity and education records contain discrepancies and omissions that he has yet to explain to the public. For example, while seeking the position of Lagos governor in 1999, he claimed under oath to have attended the prestigious University of Chicago.
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However, the university has since disavowed any connection to Mr. Tinubu. Additionally, documents from Chicago State University indicate that a Bola Tinubu attended the institution in the 1970s, but they do not confirm if it refers to the Nigerian president. Moreover, the records revealed that the individual was female.
Furthermore, President Tinubu altered his claims about attending primary and secondary schools in Lagos and Ibadan in the 1950s and 1960s. Strangely, he removed these assertions from his most recent application to the electoral office INEC ahead of the general elections scheduled for February of this year. Notably, there is no evidence to support the existence of the primary school he claimed to have attended in Nigeria.
In 1993, Mr. Tinubu was implicated in U.S. court documents as a launderer of proceeds from drug trafficking. At that time, he forfeited $460,000.
These records are crucial evidence in an ongoing legal challenge to President Tinubu’s election as the president of Nigeria. The tribunal hearing the election petitions in Abuja has prompted Aaron Greenspan to file multiple requests with U.S. authorities, seeking access to documents that could help clarify the important questions that trouble Nigerians.
The State Department is believed to possess records that could verify whether the person who applied for a U.S. visa and traveled as Bola Tinubu in the 1970s is the same individual currently serving as Nigeria’s president. The FBI could shed light on how President Tinubu became involved in drug-related activities and other potential criminal charges that are not publicly documented.
The State Department, in a letter dated May 15, 2023, to Mr. Greenspan, stated, “This office will not be able to respond within the 20 days provided by the statute due to unusual circumstances.” Similarly, the FBI had previously informed Mr. Greenspan on August 4, 2022, that “unusual circumstances” applied to the processing of his request. However, on March 22, 2023, the FBI expressed its intention to release all documents related to President Tinubu but not before January 2026 at the earliest. Other agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service of the Department of Treasury and the Drug Enforcement Administration, declined to release the records, citing the same grounds.
The FBI further contended that Mr. Greenspan had failed to demonstrate that the requested information is of public interest and would significantly contribute to understanding the government’s operations and activities. In response, the activist promptly detailed how President Tinubu’s drug forfeiture case in Chicago generated significant public attention on his organization’s website, which holds over 15 million records.
All the implicated agencies have been summoned to appear in court and provide reasons as to why the records related to a Nigerian president were deemed unusual and inconsequential to public disclosure.
On July 17, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jared Littman entered an appearance as the legal representative for all the agencies. He requested a delay until August 28, 2023, to file a response to the lawsuit, which was initiated on June 12, 2023.
