US Court Orders FBI, DEA to Release Records on Tinubu Drug Probe
A United States District Court in Washington, D.C., has ordered the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to release records relating to their past investigations into Nigerian President Bola Tinubu’s alleged involvement in drug trafficking.
In a ruling delivered on 8 April 2025, District Judge Beryl Howell instructed both agencies to search for and process non-exempt documents in response to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.
The judge also ruled that the agencies’ previous “Glomar responses”—a term used when an agency refuses to confirm or deny the existence of records—must be lifted.
The FOIA requests were filed in 2022 and 2023 by Aaron Greenspan, an American lawyer and founder of the transparency platform PlainSite. He requested information on Tinubu and several others, including Lee Andrew Edwards, Mueez Abegboyega Akande, and Abiodun Agbele, in connection with a drug trafficking ring allegedly operating in Chicago in the early 1990s.
Greenspan submitted 12 requests across six federal agencies, including the FBI, DEA, Department of State, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and Executive Office of United States Attorneys (EOUSA). Five of the agencies issued Glomar responses, prompting Greenspan to file a lawsuit challenging their stance.
Judge Howell ruled that the FBI and DEA failed to demonstrate that keeping the existence of any records secret served a valid privacy interest.
“The FBI and DEA have both officially confirmed investigations into Tinubu regarding the drug trafficking ring,” she stated.
“Any privacy interest in withholding such information is outweighed by the public’s right to know. The agencies have failed to meet the burden to justify their Glomar responses.”
Responding to the ruling, President Tinubu’s media aide, Bayo Onanuga, said in a social media post that there is “nothing new to reveal.”
“These reports have been in the public domain for over 30 years,” he said. “They do not indict the Nigerian leader. Our lawyers are studying the ruling.”
