‘Tinubu Was Under Investigation For Drugs’ — FBI

The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has confirmed through a sworn declaration filed before a US federal court that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was the subject of a criminal investigation into drug-trafficking crimes in the early 1990s.

Submitted on August 28, 2026, to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia as part of an ongoing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case, the filing explicitly states that the responsive records were compiled during an investigation of multiple individuals for drug-trafficking offenses, adding that an official acknowledgment of an investigation into Tinubu has already been determined by the court.

This development stems from an April 2025 ruling by US District Judge Beryl Howell, who determined that the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) could no longer use “Glomar” responses to conceal whether records regarding Tinubu existed.

Judge Howell concluded that the agencies failed to establish sufficient privacy grounds to hide the investigation and ordered them to process non-exempt records sought under FOIA, though the ruling did not establish that Tinubu committed any crime or was convicted of an offense.

The latest legal filings relate to requests by American transparency activist Aaron Greenspan seeking the entire FBI file and 302 interview records under Case No. 245-IP-71386-UUUUUU from 1992 to 1993 concerning a Chicago heroin-trafficking operation.

Despite releasing certain documents, the FBI continues to withhold portions of the files by invoking several FOIA exemptions to protect personal privacy, confidential sources, law-enforcement techniques, and individuals at risk of endangerment.

Public awareness of the declaration was amplified when Von Batten-Montague-York, a Washington-based lobbying firm hired by former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar ahead of the 2027 presidential election, publicized portions of the document on X.

The firm stated they released the records to counter claims that Tinubu had never been criminally investigated, whereas Tinubu’s legal team has consistently opposed further disclosures, arguing that releasing private personal information from government archives violates his rights.