The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has asked a US court for permission to submit confidential declarations explaining why it withheld certain records relating to investigative files concerning allegations of drug trafficking against President Bola Tinubu.
The FBI made the request in an application dated August 20 before the US District Court for the District of Columbia.
The agency is seeking to submit the declarations ex parte and in camera, meaning the information would be provided privately to the judge rather than placed on the public record.
FBI Cites Security and Investigative Concerns
The FBI told the court that it cannot publicly disclose the full reasons behind its decision to withhold some of the requested records.
According to the agency, releasing the information could reveal law-enforcement investigative techniques and procedures and could potentially endanger the life or physical safety of an individual.
The FBI said it had relied on several exemptions under the US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in responding to requests for records relating to Tinubu from 1992 and 1993.
The agency said:
“The information withheld from Plaintiff in this case, if disclosed, would, among other things, disclose techniques and procedures for law enforcement investigations and/or could reasonably be expected to endanger the life or physical safety of any individual.”
The FBI added that it could not place the complete basis for relying on FOIA Exemptions 7(E) and 7(F) on the public record.
It therefore asked the court to allow it to file an ex parte, under-seal declaration detailing the reasons for withholding some of the information.
If permission is granted, the FBI said it would provide the confidential explanation before August 28.
Records Requested on Tinubu
One of the FOIA requests involved a demand for what was described as the entire FBI file concerning Bola Ahmed Tinubu, with his date of birth and then-status as Nigeria’s president-elect in February 2023.
The request was assigned Request Number 1588244-000.
A second request, assigned 1593615-000, sought FBI 302 interview records involving Tinubu from FBI Case No. 245-IP-71386-UUUUUU covering the period between 1992 and 1993.
The FBI said it invoked FOIA Exemptions 6, 7(C), 7(D), 7(E) and 7(F) in connection with the requests.
Who Filed the Requests?
The plaintiff in the case is Aaron Greenspan, an American founder of PlainSite.
A copy of the FBI’s latest application was published on X by Von Batten-Montague-York, a Washington-based lobbying firm recently hired by former Vice President and ADC presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar.
The development comes amid a continuing legal battle over the release of US government records relating to allegations concerning Tinubu.
DOJ and Tinubu Seek More Time
Recently, the US Department of Justice asked the court for an additional 10 days to respond to an order concerning the release of records connected to allegations of drug trafficking involving Tinubu.
However, Judge Beryl Howell granted only four additional days, extending the deadline to August 21.
Tinubu, through his legal team, subsequently joined the DOJ’s request for the additional 10-day extension.
Howell reportedly declined Tinubu’s request.
How the Case Began
The legal dispute dates back to 2022 and 2023, when Greenspan filed 12 FOIA requests with six US federal agencies seeking information connected to criminal investigations into a Chicago heroin ring that operated during the early 1990s.
Greenspan requested investigative records concerning four individuals whom he alleged were associated with the drug ring.
They included:
- Bola Ahmed Tinubu
- Lee Andrew Edwards
- Mueez Abegboyega Akande
- Abiodun Agbele
Five of the agencies responded using what is known as a Glomar response, meaning they refused to confirm or deny whether the requested records existed.
Greenspan challenged those responses before the US Department of Justice’s Office of Information Policy (OIP).
The OIP upheld the agencies’ decisions to neither confirm nor deny the existence of the records.
Greenspan Took the Agencies to Court
On June 12, 2023, Greenspan filed a lawsuit challenging the agencies’ Glomar responses to his FOIA requests.
The initial defendants included the FBI, DEA, IRS, Executive Office for United States Attorneys and US Department of State.
The CIA was later added as a defendant in an amended complaint.
In April 2025, Judge Howell ruled that the Glomar responses issued by the FBI and DEA were “improper and must be lifted.”
The judge found that the agencies had failed to establish that a cognisable privacy interest existed in keeping secret the fact that Tinubu had allegedly been a subject of a criminal investigation.
Howell also held that the FBI and DEA had failed to provide sufficient evidence demonstrating why their Glomar responses should be maintained.
The latest FBI application therefore represents another stage in the ongoing legal battle over access to the requested records.
Source: FBI
