FBI Records on Tinubu Emerge in Drug-Trafficking Investigation

A sworn statement filed in Washington on Aug. 28 places Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu among people whose names appear in FBI records connected to a drug-trafficking investigation. The statement entered a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking access to those records.

The FBI told the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that the requested material had been gathered during an investigation into drug-trafficking offenses involving several people. Sections of the statement published by the Washington lobbying firm Von Batten-Montague-York repeated that explanation. The firm said it had obtained numerous documents from the FBI, with parts redacted before publication.

The case was brought by U.S. citizen Aaron Greenspan. He is seeking Tinubu’s complete FBI file, along with interrogation and interview records from 1992 and 1993. Those records have been described as linked to a broader investigation into a Chicago-based heroin-trafficking and money-laundering operation in the early 1990s.

In April 2025, Judge Beryl Howell ruled that public court documents formally acknowledged Tinubu’s inclusion in a criminal investigation involving the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration. She ordered the FBI and DEA to search for and process records requested under FOIA unless their release is barred by law. The court records contain no finding that Tinubu committed a crime, and his lawyers have objected to the disclosure of some documents.