By Our Reporter
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and other United States government agencies will on Friday, May 2 release the reports of their investigations on the alleged drug-related case involving President Bola Tinubu in the 1990s.
The other agencies expected to release records in their custody include US Attorneys, Department of State, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
The release would be in compliance with the order of Judge Beryl Howell of the US District Court in Columbia issued on April 8.
The court ruling followed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests filed by American researcher, Aaron Greenspan.
Between 2022 and 2023, Greenspan, who founded legal transparency platform PlainSite, had submitted 12 FOIA requests, seeking information on a Chicago drug ring that operated in the early 1990s.
He sought information on four key individuals allegedly involved in the drug ring: Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Lee Andrew Edwards, Mueez Abegboyega Akande, and Abiodun Agbele.
Both FBI and DEA previously issued “Glomar responses”— a refusal to confirm or deny the existence of requested records—but the court ruled that such responses were improper in this case.
According to Judge Howell, withholding the same from public disclosure is “neither logical nor plausible.”
The judge ordered the remaining parties in the matter, apart from the CIA, to jointly file the report on the status of any outstanding issues in this case, as described in the accompanying order to release the documents on May 2, 2025.
The judgement reads in part, “The FBI and DEA have both officially confirmed investigations of Tinubu relating to the drug trafficking ring.
“Any privacy interests implicated by the FOIA requests to the FBI and DEA for records about Tinubu are overcome by the public interest in release of such information.
“Since the FBI and DEA have provided no information to establish that a cognizable privacy interest exists in keeping secret the fact that Tinubu was a subject of criminal investigation.
“They have failed to meet their burden to sustain their Glomar responses and provide an additional reason why these responses must be lifted.”
Meanwhile, the presidency had dismissed the judgement as the rehashing of old records that have been publicly available for decades.
Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to the President, Bayo Onanuga, said, “There is nothing new to be revealed. The report by Agent Moss of the FBI and the DEA has been in the public space for more than 30 years. The reports did not indict the Nigerian leader.”
@The Sun.