₦airaland Forum

Nigerian president Bola Tinubu has intervened via his lawyer, Oluwole O. Afolabi, in the ongoing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, with a motion seeking to block the unredacted release of records held by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) on Tinubu.

In the motion filed on September 4, 2025, Afolabi argued that exemptions under the U.S. Privacy Act, and FOIA Exemption 7(c) were grounds to conceal the records from public eyes for privacy reasons, requesting the court to force the hand of the FBI and DEA to withhold the public release of the files. Afolabi’s motion comes 5 months after the court already ruled that privacy exemptions under the FOIA Act could not be applied in this case, and both agencies should consequently release the unredacted records.

An excerpt from Tinubu’s motion argument reads:

The exemptions and Privacy Act should prevail here because the privacy interests of [Tinubu] outweigh [Greenspan’s] interest in publicising information about Tinubu.”

It will be recalled that the case, instituted in 2023 by American FOIA activist Aaron Greenspan with assistance from West Africa Weekly Editor-in-Chief David Hundeyin, had earlier resulted in the release of 5 batches of the requested documents, with all reference to Tinubu, his family members or associated business entities redacted.

On April 8, 2025, Judge Beryl Howell ordered the FBI and DEA to search for and produce all records about Tinubu in their posession, after ruling in favour of Greenspan with a judgment that stated that the agencies could not hide behind Glomar responses or apply FOIA exemptions.

According to Judge Howell, keeping such information away from public knowledge using Glomar responses under the excuse of individual privacy exemptions is “neither logical nor plausible.”

Since the judgment however, both agencies have deployed legal gamesmanship and administrative obstruction to delay production of the unredacted files, leading Greenspan to accuse them of “playing politics” and “deliberately delaying” the release of the unredacted drug files as a “favour to the Nigerian President” in a motion filed last month.

In Tinubu’s intervention filing, his lawyer argued: “[Greenspan’s] requests – seeking records about Bola Tinubu – do not fall within the scope of FOIA” […] The purpose of FOIA is to provide access to information on government activities, not to obtain records on individuals compiled by the government.”

Related News: Aaron Greenspan Accuses FBI, DEA of Playing Politics, Deliberately Delaying Release of Unredacted Tinubu Drug Files “As Favour To Nigerian President”
Afolabi argued that FOIA is meant to provide information about government activities, not to expose private details of individuals. Afolabi arugued that the requests by Greenspan “improperly target a private individual” (Tinubu), and that there is no overriding public interest in exposing records concerning past investigations from when Tinubu was not a public official.

Given that a summary judgment has already been delivered on the validity of the privacy exemptions in this case, it is unclear how Afolabi’s argument – which effectively asks the court to reverse its own ruling in the same case – will be received by Judge Howell.

In a motion filed in response almost immediately, Greenspan requested that the court disregard or strike out Bola Tinubu’s motion. An excerpt from Greenspan’s motion filing opposing Tinubu reads:



West Africa Weekly will continue to monitor and update this story as it unfolds. You can read the filing by Greenspan and Tinubu’s lawyers here and here.

About The Author

Mayowa Durosinmi
author

M. Durosinmi is a West Africa Weekly investigative reporter covering Politics, Human Rights, Health, and Security in West Africa and the Sahel Region

https://westafricaweekly.com/bola-tinubu-intervenes-in-foia-lawsuit-asks-u-s-court-to-block-fbi-dea-release-of-his-unredacted-records/
#TinubuFiles
Bola Tinubu
DEA
Drug Trafficking
FBI
Written by
Mayowa Durosinmi
M. Durosinmi is a West Africa Weekly investigative reporter covering Politics, Human Rights, Health, and Security in West Africa and the Sahel Region

oga028315:
But later you people will be insulting Igbos that they love money too much, the hypocrisy from you guys ehn!

You now see why I dey pour am spit everyday, abi?

yarimo:
Hahahaha bolaji abdullahi that appointed himself from his bedroom as ADC spoke man is even talking

Hypocrite!!
Did you comment on the initial thread when the news was put out there?

An absolute Benedict Arnold.... that's what the Head of House speaker is

What is wrong with my answer?

Helinues that will trek from Osun to Abuja for 10k, nko??😒

OP should mention their names, joooooor!

It's Helinues and Yarimo 😖

ogolemati:
no agbero union member on this forum yet.yarimo where are thou

Add im tag team partner, Helinues

Prostitution has now been glorified due to social media

Nigerians youths....

Always Majoring on the minors.

Seun, do your worst!

Ofunaofu:
Imagine dragging Peter Obi into a thread that has absolutely nothing to do with him, the obsession is wild. You people can’t go a single day without mentioning his name; it’s giving rent-free, it’s giving fixation.

Now, comparing the DSS summoning a citizen to someone issuing a personal ultimatum over defamation is not only a false equivalence but pure intellectual laziness. The DSS is a state institution with the power of force, Obi is a private citizen, not a state security agency. Use your head.

Face the mountain of chaos your Tinubu has turned the country into. Focus on governance and leave Obi out of your mouth for once, it’s starting to look like a crush.

Please mention one APC e-warrior on this forum that uses his or her head.

Did Goodluck Jonathan using the DSS summon Tinubu after he made this statement back in 2011?
A hypocrite that can't take a quarter of what he dished out while playing in the opposition.

franchasng:
To me, there is nothing wrong in borrowing to fix the country.


The only issue I have with Bola Tinubu's government is that he borrows money and squanders it.


He borrows and loot it using white elephant projects like Coastal Highway that add no immediate value to Nigeria and Nigerian people's lives.


If Tinubu was borrowing and using it sincerely to develop Nigeria and better Nigeria's economy, that would have been fine but he borrows and use fake projects to loot the money away using proxies.


He removed subsidy and claimed he saved billions abi trillions while plunging Nigerians into misery and lack.


He has increased customs import duty severally all to raise money.

He has increased international passport processing cost twice.

He increased Telecom tariffs.

He increased electricity tariffs and added Band A, B, C, D, etc, all to raise money.

He removed subsidy on tertiary education tuition fees and brought a sham student loan, loan oh!


He unified exchanged rate.

He has brought a dangerous tax law that will be implemented next year which will further kill many businesses and companies.

He has introduced housing insurance which will cause rent to increase nationwide

He said he is implementing fuel tax which will cause price of petrol per liter to increase meaning more hardship next year.

Still the economy keep collapsing, Nigerian people's purchasing power keep dying daily, businesses keep struggling with patronage because Nigerians can't afford to spend on things they need.


Honestly any Nigerian that vote for this man in 2027 needs to be checked thoroughly.

They actually need brain transplant after a thorough mental evaluation.....

But DSS didn't see the abusive names many of the ACN chieftains called President Jonathan in 2014/2015 when they were in opposition.

Madam Abike Dabiri and Reno Omokri go don become blind, deaf and dumb as e be say nor be South Easterner be the culprit.

hotseat:
What a poor attempt at damage control!

Abass merely stated the obvious but, must have been tongue-lashed by his superiors to backtrack on his words.

Alas!

The horse has already bolted!

Admittedly, it was a Freudian slip capable of embarrassing Tinubu, his cabinet and his party, the APC.

A man who hates criticisms, loves himself more than the truth.





@hotseat

Nigeria is gone; just a tiny string of hope still holding it.

Goodluck Jonathan studied them well and knew there's need to rescue Nigeria from unscrupulous elements masquerading as leaders there.
History has vindicated him.

nedekid:
You won't find those useful idiots or their mentor reno on this post.

Very useless set of people..... Not one of them found it worthy to comment on this thread.
Bola Ahmed Tinubu aka Borrow And Tax!

Abeg, anybody see Yarimo, Helinues, Seunmsg or FreeStuffsNG comments for this thread?

Hahahahaha!
This na just the beginning, say when we talk all the Rotimi Amaechi laptop Boyz/Girls will be ranting... Una eyes go clear in the hard way.

Patrick Doyle isn't wrong!!
Davido is all money and no class nor style.

DukeofLAGOS:
Baba his statement was all about ethnic supremacy, automatically ETHNIC DIVISION,which is criminal under d laws ,he(reno) is neither of the major ethnic groups igbo Yoruba or hausa,but subtly throws jabbs on d igbo ethnic group to fend their anger against the innocent Yorubas tribe......
D idea behind this is division,it's a hatchet and paid job I can tell u with personal evidence
Such manipulations keep getting into minds of shallow individuals who think their brothers of the other ethnic divide is their enemy which is far from d truth.
The real enemy is d leadership which has all d criminal ethnic group come together to loot d country mindlessly....then pays their e.worrriors to spread hate they are so many on NAIRALAND even as moderators..nothing last forever

Please, Seun Osewa should come and read this. He's the one that keep enabling these APC e-warriors. I go screenshot this post because I know he will delete it.

kedeojo:
Reno is just too articulate. Look at facts but sad and bitter people will still say otherwise without countering him with fact. Tinubu should make Reno a special advicer and possibly minister of information in his second term if he wins which is likely anyway. We need to be hearing history not fake lies they try to feed us but unfortunately some person has been cajoled with it.

Reno was also truthful in this piece he wrote 3 - 4 years ago too

iwaeda:
What we support, will definitely come to haunt us, when he was happily celebrating the removal of GEJ by APC, I told people that Nigeria will understand.

What exactly did Sowore say that's causing commotion everywhere?
Bola Ahmed Tinubu's hypocrisy is extremely nauseating.

Riskymarvelous:
Buh if the news come from OBI government you would av say otherwise, that is lack of integrity and common sense go and verify

You dey mind the shameless hypocrite?

helinues:
Taxing is not the problem only if the Nigerians are feeling the positive impact of the tax they have been paying

Upon fuel subsidy removal, your President still dey do Almaraji all over the globe

When a clown is crowned King, the kingdom becomes a comedy show.

See as our "Sophisticated" south west people just abandoned this thread🤣

professorPABX:
Mr Taiwo Oyedele, Baba Awolowo in one of his books - Voice of Reasons, said "only the deep can reach unto the deep". Later, I came across it in the Bible. The Tax Reform Bills before it became Act required a very deep intelligent discernment to understand. I remembered Jakande spent only four years which means he spent only 3 active years on projects. Till date, I wondered how much was done under Jakande within that 3 years. In his second coming he would have done the Lagos Metroline and Metrolink before 1987. Someone reminded me - Oodua, Ogbon nbe, eniyan wa.

Oodua, Ogbon nbe, eniyan wa. Men of rare wisdom, intellect and substance.

Alhaji Lateef Jakande still remains the BEST Governor of Lagos State.