President Bola Tinubu has asked a United States court to stop the Department of Justice, FBI and DEA from releasing records relating to allegations of drug trafficking linked to him.
In court filings made on Friday and obtained by Channels Television, Tinubu’s lawyers, Christopher Carmichael, Victor Henderson and Oluwole Afolabi, said releasing the documents would violate the president’s right to privacy.
The case stems from a Freedom of Information Act, FOIA, lawsuit filed by American transparency activist Aaron Greenspan. Greenspan is seeking FBI files on Tinubu, including Form 302 interview records from 1992 and 1993, as well as documents related to a 1993 civil forfeiture case involving about $460,000.
Tinubu’s legal team argued that although some details from the forfeiture proceedings were previously made public, the president still retains a privacy interest in the rest of the investigative files.
“The purpose of Plaintiff’s motion is to obtain such information because it is not public,” the lawyers stated, adding that prior disclosure “did not reveal the details of a possible criminal investigation.”
Citing US Supreme Court rulings, the team said an individual retains privacy rights over undisclosed portions of government files even when some information has already been released.
They also faulted Greenspan’s arguments on the FBI’s search and DEA’s record index, saying the request was aimed at obtaining records containing Tinubu’s name that should remain private under US law.
The lawyers urged the court to deny the FOIA request.
