By| Goodluck E.Adubazi, Abuja
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has filed a legal challenge in a United States court seeking to prevent the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) from releasing records relating to past investigations linked to him.
The records are being sought by American transparency activist, Aaron Greenspan, who instituted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against several U.S. government agencies to obtain documents concerning investigations involving the Nigerian president.
Greenspan’s requests reportedly include the FBI’s complete file on Tinubu, as well as FBI Form 302 interview records covering the period between 1992 and 1993.
The case also involves records connected to a 1993 civil forfeiture proceeding in the United States involving approximately $460,000 allegedly linked to Tinubu.
“Tinubu has consistently denied any wrongdoing,
According to a 16-page court filing obtained by Channels Television from Tinubu’s legal team on Saturday, the president is asking the court to protect his privacy interests and prevent the disclosure of investigative records.
His lawyers, Christopher W. Carmichael, Victor P. Henderson and Oluwole O. Afolabi, argued that the fact that some information may have previously appeared in public records does not extinguish Tinubu’s privacy rights over the contents of government investigative files.
The legal team cited several U.S. judicial precedents, including a Supreme Court decision, to argue that an individual retains a privacy interest in an entire government file even where portions of information from the same file may have been disclosed previously.
The lawyers maintained that Greenspan’s FOIA application was specifically aimed at obtaining information that is not already in the public domain.
According to the filing, the limited disclosures made during the 1993 forfeiture proceedings did not reveal the details or outcome of any possible criminal investigation involving Tinubu.
The lawyers further argued that identifying an individual as having been investigated is legally distinct from disclosing the contents of the investigative records.
Citing a 2021 decision involving the U.S. Department of Justice, the legal team maintained that individuals whose names have appeared in publicly available material could still retain privacy rights against disclosure of the details contained in investigative files.
“Regardless of the prior disclosure in the forfeiture proceeding, Intervenor retains a privacy interest in potential disclosure of the investigative files sought by Plaintiff,” the lawyers stated.
The filing is part of an ongoing legal battle over whether the U.S. government should release historical records relating to Tinubu under the FOIA.
Greenspan’s lawsuit seeks access to government documents that could shed further light on investigations and proceedings involving the Nigerian president in the United States decades ago.
