The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) confirmed in a sworn declaration submitted to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on August 28, 2026, that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was previously the subject of a criminal investigation regarding suspected drug trafficking in the early 1990s.
The declaration was filed as part of an ongoing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit seeking public access to law enforcement records connected to the Nigerian leader.
In the declaration, the FBI said, “the responsive records herein were compiled in furtherance of the FBI’s investigation of multiple individuals for drug trafficking crimes.”
The agency also said, “the court has already determined that an official acknowledgement had been made of an investigation of Bola Tinubu.”
The latest submission follows a ruling that US District Judge Beryl Howell issued in April 2025. She ruled that the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) could no longer use “Glomar” responses to confirm or deny the existence of records related to Tinubu.
Howell found that the agencies had failed to provide sufficient privacy grounds to keep the investigation into Tinubu secret.
She ordered the agencies to process the FOIA requests, except for records that fall under specific legal exemptions.
However, the ruling did not find that Tinubu committed a drug trafficking offence or that he was convicted of any crime.
Backstory…
Recall that Aaron Greenspan, an American transparency activist, submitted the FOIA requests. He requested FBI 302 interview documents on Tinubu from FBI Case No. 245-IP-71386-UUUUUU between 1992 and 1993, as well as the “entire FBI file for Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”
The requests formed part of a broader effort to obtain information about a Chicago heroin trafficking operation that US authorities investigated in the early 1990s.
The FBI has continued to withhold portions of the records, citing exemptions covering personal privacy, confidential sources, law enforcement techniques and information that could endanger individuals.
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