US court ruling on Tinubu’s FBI, DEA reports: It’s being public domain for 30 years -Presidency
Nigeria’s presidency, on Sunday, dismissed a recent United State (US) court ruling instructing American law enforcement agencies to release confidential information gathered from investigating President Bola Tinubu for drug-related case in the 1990s.
In a statement on Sunday, the presidency said “there is nothing new to be revealed” and the said report by “Agent Moss of the FBI and the DEA report have been in the public space for more than 30 years.”
The Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, said the reports did not in any way “indict the Nigerian leader.”
But he said the president’s “lawyers are examining the ruling.”
PREMIUM TIMES reported Sunday that a US court has ordered the American Federal Bureau of Investigation(FBI), and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to release information on investigation involving Mr Tinubu
The judge, Beryl Howell, said protecting the information from public disclosure is “neither logical nor plausible.”
An American, Aaron Greenspan, had filed a suit in June 2023 under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) against the Executive Office for US Attorneys, Department of State, Federal Bureau of Investigation(FBI), Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Mr Greenspan accused the law enforcement agencies of violating the FOIA by failing to release within the statutory time “documents relating to purported federal investigations into” President Tinubu and one Abiodun Agbele.
In his FOIA request, the American sought criminal investigative records about four named individuals “allegedly associated with the drug ring: Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Lee Andrew Edwards, Mueez Abegboyega Akande, and Abiodun Agbele.”
After the requests, the US agencies issued “Glomar responses”, refusing to confirm or deny whether the requested records exist.
Mr Greenspan contested those responses at the Department of Justice’s Office of Information Policy (“OIP”). The OIP affirmed the agencies’ refusal to confirm or deny the existence of the requested records.
The American then filed a lawsuit on 12 June 2023, naming the FBI, DEA, IRS, EOUSA, CIA and Department of State as defendants and challenging each agency’s response to the separate FOIA requests.
On Tuesday, the judge noted that since it was acknowledged that Mr 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.”
The judge said the ‘Glomar’ responses asserted by the FBI and DEA are “improper and must be lifted.”
He struck down the exemptions previously used to redact the files, and ordered the FBI and DEA to remove the redactions and release the files again.
The judge ordered the FBI and DEA to file jointly, by 2 May, a report on the status of any outstanding issues in this case, as described in the accompanying order.
