A Washington-based lobbying firm hired by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has confirmed that it has begun distributing documents relating to President Bola Tinubu’s 1993 US civil forfeiture case to officials in the Donald Trump administration, members of Congress and congressional staff.
The firm, Von Batten-Montague-York, L.C., said the documents include records from the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) concerning a long-standing civil forfeiture case involving allegations linked to funds allegedly connected to Tinubu.
According to the firm, it was engaged by Atiku under a 12-month lobbying agreement reportedly worth $1.2 million to promote his views on Nigeria-US relations through advocacy and diplomatic engagement.
In a statement shared on X, the lobbying firm said it had already held meetings with US government officials before circulating more than 60 pages of DOJ documents and related court records.
“Following discussions with members of the Trump administration, Congress and senior congressional staff, we began providing more than 60 pages of Department of Justice documents,” the firm said.
The documents reportedly contain details of a 1993 civil forfeiture case filed in the United States involving allegations that certain funds were linked to narcotics trafficking and money laundering. The records identified Bola Tinubu, Adegboyega Mueez Akande, and Abiodun Agbele as individuals mentioned in the government’s allegations at the time.
According to the lobbying firm, the documents are being shared for informational and oversight purposes, with some US officials said to have been previously unaware of the historical case.
The matter was also raised during the legal challenge to Nigeria’s 2023 presidential election, where Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi argued that the forfeiture proceedings affected Tinubu’s eligibility to contest the election.
However, the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) dismissed the argument, ruling that the 1993 forfeiture case was a civil proceeding, not a criminal conviction, and that there was no evidence showing Tinubu made false declarations to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The lobbying firm’s disclosure comes as the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation in the United States over records related to the case remains ongoing.
