The FBI has handed over records tied to President Bola Tinubu’s 1993 drug-trafficking and money-laundering case to a US federal judge, according to court documents.
The materials were delivered under seal to Judge Beryl Howell of the US District Court for the District of Columbia, meaning only the court can currently view them as it decides whether to make the records public.
The handover followed a long-running legal fight over a Freedom of Information Act request filed by American transparency advocate Aaron Greenspan, who has spent years pushing the FBI for access to Tinubu’s records. Greenspan worked with Nigerian journalist David Hundeyin on the request, which was originally filed in 2023.
Court filings show the FBI delivered the documents on Friday, August 28, after Judge Howell ordered the bureau to justify its continued refusal to release them. Greenspan was not told what the documents contained.
A filing stated the records were hand-delivered to the court on August 28, 2026, in compliance with Howell’s minute order dated August 20, 2026.
The case had dragged on largely due to disputes over how slowly the FBI was processing the request, with the bureau repeatedly asking for extensions. Howell reportedly gave the FBI multiple chances to explain the delays before losing patience and setting August 28 as a hard deadline.
The FBI had earlier argued that releasing the records could violate Tinubu’s privacy rights, insisting that FOIA is meant to promote transparency around government operations rather than grant unrestricted access to information about private individuals.
The dispute traces back to long-standing allegations about Tinubu’s activities in the United States in the early 1990s.
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