Washington, D.C. – A United States court has ordered the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to release records pertaining to Nigerian President Bola Tinubu. Judge Beryl Howell of the US District Court for the District of Columbia issued the order in response to a motion filed by Aaron Greenspan, who alleged that the law enforcement agencies violated the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Greenspan's request sought documents related to purported federal investigations into President Tinubu and one Abiodun Agbele. This inquiry is reportedly linked to the $460,000 that Tinubu forfeited to the US government in 1993, which was allegedly connected to narcotics trafficking.
Judge Howell stated that protecting the information from public disclosure was "neither logical nor plausible." She criticized the "Glomar responses" by the FBI and DEA as "improper and must be lifted." A Glomar response is when an agency refuses to confirm or deny the existence of records.
The judge outlined that a FOIA requester could challenge an agency's Glomar response by arguing that confirming or denying the existence of records would not result in recognizable harm under a FOIA exemption. They can also show that the agency has "officially acknowledged otherwise exempt information through prior disclosure," waiving its right to claim an exemption.
Greenspan argued that the DEA had already officially confirmed investigations into Agbele's involvement in a drug trafficking ring and that both the FBI and DEA had officially confirmed investigations into Tinubu relating to the same ring. He further contended that any privacy interests were outweighed by the public interest in the release of such information.
The $460,000 forfeiture by Tinubu was a point of contention during the 2023 presidential election in Nigeria. Tinubu's victory in that election was challenged by former candidates Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar, but the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal upheld Tinubu's win.