According to a report by Daily Post on Saturday, August 29, 2026, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has submitted records relating to a decades-old investigation involving President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to US District Judge Beryl Howell for private review, marking the latest development in a long-running Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) dispute.
The records were hand-delivered to the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Friday, August 28, 2026, in compliance with a directive issued by Judge Howell.
According to court filings, the FBI submitted the documents under seal and on an ex parte, in camera basis. This means the materials were provided directly to the judge for confidential examination and have not been made available to the public or the petitioner seeking their release.
The development follows a three-year legal battle initiated by American transparency campaigner Aaron Greenspan, who filed FOIA requests seeking records from US federal agencies concerning investigations involving Tinubu.
Greenspan’s requests included the FBI’s files relating to Tinubu as well as interview records, known as Form 302 reports, concerning the 1992 and 1993 period. He pursued the requests with the assistance of Nigerian journalist David Hundeyin.
Judge Howell had set August 28 as a deadline for the FBI to provide the disputed material and its justification for withholding information after becoming increasingly critical of delays in the case.
Rather than releasing the documents directly to Greenspan, the FBI submitted them to the court for the judge to determine whether some or all of the records should remain protected from disclosure.
The latest development does not mean the records have been released or that the court has made a new finding against Tinubu. Instead, Judge Howell will now examine the material and assess the FBI’s arguments for withholding or redacting information.
The FBI had previously argued that disclosure of some of the records could infringe on privacy rights and potentially expose sensitive law-enforcement information.
In a filing earlier this month, the bureau asked the court for permission to provide additional explanations privately, arguing that a public explanation could itself reveal investigative techniques or information that could put individuals at risk. The agency cited several exemptions under the US FOIA law in seeking to withhold portions of the material.
Tinubu has also intervened in the case and is opposing the release of the records.
His legal team recently asked Judge Howell to reject Greenspan’s request for summary judgment and allow the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to maintain redactions and withholdings in the records.
The president’s lawyers argued that the documents contain information in which Tinubu retains privacy interests, despite earlier public records concerning his dealings with US authorities. They also argued that the requested records could be used by political opponents to damage his reputation ahead of Nigeria’s 2027 general election.
The controversy centres on Tinubu’s dealings with US authorities in the early 1990s, including allegations relating to narcotics trafficking and money laundering.
The allegations have circulated publicly for years, although the current FOIA litigation concerns access to US government records rather than a new criminal case against the Nigerian president.
In April 2025, Judge Howell ruled against the FBI and DEA’s continued use of a so-called “Glomar response”, under which an agency neither confirms nor denies the existence of responsive records. The judge found that the agencies had not sufficiently justified maintaining that position in relation to records concerning Tinubu.
Separate records released in 2023 by the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois provided details about Tinubu’s dealings with American authorities in the 1990s. The documents included information surrounding a civil forfeiture involving approximately $460,000 linked to him.
The latest submission by the FBI, however, remains confidential.
Greenspan and members of the public will have to wait for Judge Howell’s decision on whether the records, or portions of them, should eventually be released.
COURTESY: NewsForum24
