By Safiyat Muhammed
Abuja, Nigeria
The Presidency has dismissed recent media reports suggesting President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was indicted in a decades-old U.S. investigation related to drug trafficking, saying the findings neither constitute new evidence nor implicate the Nigerian leader in any wrongdoing.
In a statement issued on Sunday by Presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga, the Presidency responded to a recent ruling by a U.S. federal court directing the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to release documents tied to investigations from the 1990s. The court order, made public on April 8, 2025, followed a lawsuit filed under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by American transparency advocate Aaron Greenspan.
Onanuga noted that the records referenced in the case have been in the public domain for over three decades and were widely circulated during Nigeria’s 2023 general elections. He stressed that no new material evidence has surfaced to implicate the President in any criminal activity.
“There is absolutely nothing new here,” Onanuga said. “The matter was exhaustively explored and litigated in Nigerian courts ahead of the 2023 election. The courts found no credible evidence of wrongdoing.”
The FOIA lawsuit, filed in June 2023, sought the release of investigative files related to President Tinubu, alongside other individuals allegedly linked to a drug trafficking network—Lee Andrew Edwards, Mueez Abegboyega Akande, and Abiodun Agbele. Greenspan accused several U.S. agencies—including the CIA, IRS, State Department, and Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys—of failing to release the requested documents in a timely manner.
In her ruling, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell ordered the FBI and DEA to release the unredacted files and to submit a joint update by May 2, 2025. Judge Howell rejected attempts to keep the information sealed, stating that withholding the records was both “illogical and implausible.”
The ruling has reignited public discourse around President Tinubu’s past, especially as the 1993 civil forfeiture of $460,000—linked to a narcotics investigation—was a key campaign issue during the 2023 presidential election. Despite that, Tinubu went on to win the election and was cleared by Nigerian courts on all related allegations.
The Presidency reaffirmed its position that the renewed attention to the matter is politically motivated and lacks merit.
“There is no fresh indictment. No new evidence. This is simply an old story being recycled for political gains,” Onanuga insisted.
With the FBI and DEA now under court order to make further disclosures, all eyes remain on whether additional revelations will emerge—or, as the Presidency contends, if the latest legal developments simply affirm what is already publicly known.
