…Requests it’s placed under seal for court’s review

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), has finally submitted records relating to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s 1993 drug-trafficking and money-laundering case to Beryl Howell, a judge of the US District Court for the District of Columbia.

It was gathered that the FBI hand-delivered the records to the court on Friday, August 28, 2026 and requested that the records should remain under seal for the judge’s review.

The submission of the records followed a court order directing the FBI to release the records relating to Tinubu after the Bureau missed several deadlines upon a Freedom of Information Act case filed by transparency campaigner, Aaron Greenspan.

Greenspan filed the FOIA request in 2023 and worked with a Nigerian journalist David Hundeyin to seek access to the records.

The FBI submitted the documents under seal for an ex parte, in camera review, in compliance with a minute order issued by Judge Howell on August 20, 2028.

Judge Howell had reportedly given the FBI August 28, as the final deadline to comply with the order after expressing concerns over its repeated delays and explanations for not releasing the records.

With the development, it means the records have been submitted directly to the judge without being immediately made available to Greenspan, the petitioner in the case.

The FBI argued last week that releasing the records could violate Tinubu’s privacy rights insisting that the FOIA law was primarily designed to provide access to government records and did not necessarily require the disclosure of information concerning private individuals.

Tinubu also opposed the release of the records, arguing that his political opponents could use them to damage his reputation ahead of 2027 elections, thus urged the court to protect his privacy rights.

The controversy centres on Tinubu’s dealings with US authorities in the 1990s over allegations of narcotics trafficking and money laundering.

Tinubu has declined to publicly address the controversy, which includes a 1993 case in which hundreds of thousands of dollars linked to him were forfeited to the US Government.

In 2023, the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois released documents detailing Tinubu’s encounter with American authorities over the allegations.