‘I’ll Lose Election’: Tinubu Fights to Stop US Court Releasing Drug Case File
A Washington-based lobbying firm representing former Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar has claimed that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu requested a United States court to prevent federal agencies from releasing law-enforcement records connected to past alleged heroin-trafficking investigations.
Von Batten-Montague-York L.C. stated on Friday that legal representatives for Tinubu submitted filings seeking to block requests under the Freedom of Information Act aimed at the US Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
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The lobbying firm alleged that the President cited his right to privacy as the basis for keeping the law-enforcement records sealed. The firm further claimed Tinubu argued that opposition figures sought the documents ‘to influence politics in a foreign nation’ and potentially impact his prospects in Nigeria’s 2027 presidential election.
Legal Battle Over US Law Enforcement Records
The lobbying firm, Ejes Gist News understands, did not publish the complete text of the court filing alongside its update, leaving the exact wording and specific legal context of the submission unverified by independent examination.
According to the firm’s statement, Tinubu’s legal submissions argued that general public interest in his background and fitness for public office does not give citizens a legal right under US disclosure laws to obtain protected law-enforcement files.
The development forms part of a broad political and legal struggle between Atiku and Tinubu involving US institutions. Atiku, who intends to contest the 2027 presidential race, has previously sought access to various US documents linked to the President.
Tinubu and his legal representatives have routinely maintained that attempts by political rivals to secure foreign records serve political motives rather than legitimate legal proceedings.