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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

What are they really hiding?
If Tinubu has a clean bill, there was no need to appeal the case in the first instance.

CIA agent Abu wetin dem call am sef.

Everything is shrouded in secrecy. Even Pablo Escobar get known history before his death.

Person wey them say e get first class dey hide his first class.


Agbero dey hide the school wey him go...

Nairaland mods aka APC e-warriors nor wan gree move this to FP

Will you people stop with all these fake stuff?

None of this is true, Greenspan and Hundeyin have falling out, Judge Howell has never sat on such a case.

There is nothing in any on the websites of the DEA or FBI, this is ridiculous.

Edit: I just did a quick check on West Africa Weekly, guess who owns it, a certain David Hundeyin, oh Dear!

..Mods kindly push this piece of news to the FP..

..tilumbu must be exposed..insha allah..

A criminal can run but can never hide. This is shameful and disgraceful for a country.

Tochi3:


..Mods kindly push this piece of news to the FP..

..tilumbu must be exposed..insha allah..

Why should they push this blatantly fake news to the front page?

That the thread hasn't been deleted and yet another moniker of David Hundeyin hasn't been banned for a long time is the surprise.

No proof, nothing. Just the same old BS about events that never happened that is routinely thrown up once in a while.

aswani:
Why should they push this blatantly fake news to the front page?

That the thread hasn't been deleted and yet another moniker of David Hundeyin hasn't been banned for a long time is the surprise.

No proof, nothing. Just the same old BS about events that never happened that is routinely thrown up once in a while.

Ehen now that you've finally embraced the corn 🌽 with your full chest can't you feel how exhilarating it is to RoNu on the forum and not have to explain yourself to every random person concerning your political affiliation 🤗

I commend your brevity, I know it's not easy but man must wack

It's now confirmed that Nairaland is firmly in the hands of the APC propaganda machinery. It's shameful that this thread didn't make FP

MemphitzDgreat1:
It's now confirmed that Nairaland is firmly in the hands of the APC propaganda machinery. It's shameful that this thread didn't make FP

That the clearly fake thread hasn't been deleted suggests otherwise.

How many times are we going to read the nonsense that never manifests itself. There is no FOI request and no one is blocking anything.

It's just David Hundeyin preparing grounds to fleece Obidients out of their money, which is fair enough, but he should not be allowed to do so on this Platform.

If it is not a fabrication you should attach the court filing on court papers.

MemphitzDgreat1:
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

MemphitzDgreat1:
Nairaland mods aka APC e-warriors nor wan gree move this to FP

Nlfpmod, is this allegation true?

aswani:
Why should they push this blatantly fake news to the front page?

That the thread hasn't been deleted and yet another moniker of David Hundeyin hasn't been banned for a long time is the surprise.

No proof, nothing. Just the same old BS about events that never happened that is routinely thrown up once in a while.

Running kitikata over non events? Smh