Battle Between Washington, Abuja: Chaos Looming as US Court Orders For Tinubu Long-Buried Drug Records to Be Released
Israel Adeleke
OPEN TELEVISION NAIJA (OTN) News reports as gathered that amid chaos, controversy, courtroom drama in the United States, the US District Court for the District of Columbia has ordered the the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to release long-withheld documents related to Nigerian President Bola Tinubu.
OTN News further reports as gathered that the decision, was handed down by Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, follows a fierce legal battle waged by activist and tech entrepreneur, Aaron Greenspan, who accused the agencies of violating the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.
OTN News observes that Greenspan, known for his transparency advocacy, had asked the court to revisit a previous decision that failing to release within the statutory time “documents relating to purported federal investigations into” President Tinubu and one Abiodun Agbele.
OTN News further observes that a case revolves around allegations that Tinubu forfeited $460,000 to the U.S. government in 1993, following suspicions the funds were linked to a narcotics trafficking ring.
In court filings, Greenspan argued not only that the agencies have acknowledged investigations into Tinubu and alleged drug kingpin Abiodun Agbele, but also that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has confirmed the existence of responsive records, a significant breach in the wall of silence that has surrounded the case for years.
While this issue has dogged him politically for decades, OTN News recalls that it resurfaced in full force during Nigeria’s 2023 elections, with opposition figures Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi citing it in their attempts to disqualify his candidacy.
However, on Tuesday, Judge Howell who ruled partly in favour of Greenspan, noted that the ‘Glomar’ responses asserted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation(FBI) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) are “improper and must be lifted.”
He said the FBI and DEA failed to show that they properly invoked the FOIA.
According to Howell, since it was acknowledged that Tinubu was a subject of an investigation involving both the FBI and DEA, “the claim that the Glomar responses were necessary to protect this information from public disclosure is at this point neither logical nor plausible.”
Explaining further, the judge established that a FOIA requester may challenge the propriety of an agency’s Glomar response in two ways: first, by “challenging the agency’s assertion that confirming or denying the existence of any records would result in a cognisable harm under a FOIA exemption,” and, second, showing that the agency “has ‘officially acknowledged otherwise exempt information through prior disclosure,” meaning that the agency “has ‘waived its right to claim an exemption with respect to that information.”
In this case, the judge said Mr Greenspan asserts both types of challenges to defendants’ Glomar responses: “The plaintiffs’ argument that (1) DEA has officially confirmed investigations of Agbele’s involvement in the drug trafficking ring, (2) the FBI and DEA have both officially confirmed investigations of Tinubu relating to the drug trafficking ring, (3) 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, and (4) the CIA has officially acknowledged records responsive to plaintiff’s FOIA request about Tinubu.”
OTN News however observes that as of now, neither the Nigerian presidency nor the U.S. State Department has issued a public response.
What's Your Reaction?
