The Presidency has clarified that the ongoing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case involving President Bola Ahmed Tinubu before the United States District Court for the District of Columbia is a civil records-disclosure dispute, not a criminal case.
In a statement issued on Thursday by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, the Presidency said the court has neither charged nor found Tinubu guilty of any criminal wrongdoing.
The clarification follows recent reports surrounding Civil Action No. 23-1816, filed in 2023 by Aaron Greenspan after several US government agencies withheld or declined to confirm the existence of records relating to Tinubu in response to FOIA requests made in 2022.
According to the Presidency, the court subsequently allowed Tinubu to participate in the proceedings as an intervenor.
The US government agencies invoked what is known as the “Glomar defence”, a legal position that allows agencies to neither confirm nor deny the existence of certain records where doing so could compromise law-enforcement interests.
The court subsequently granted summary judgment in favour of the CIA, the Executive Office for United States Attorneys, the Department of State, the Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service, removing them from the proceedings. The remaining issues involve the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
The Presidency said the FBI and DEA have produced 399 pages of records, although portions were redacted under exemptions provided by US law.
The agencies are defending the redactions on grounds including the protection of grand-jury material, attorney-client and attorney-work-product privileges, law-enforcement information, personal privacy, confidential sources and investigative techniques.
Tinubu has also asserted his rights under FOIA Exemption 7(C), which concerns the protection of personal privacy in law-enforcement records.
The Presidency further stated that the case dates back to FOIA requests made in 2022, while noting that, in 2003, the US Consulate in Lagos informed then Inspector General of Police Tafa Balogun that an FBI records check had found no criminal arrest records, wants or warrants for Tinubu at the time.
The statement stressed that the release or withholding of records under FOIA does not, by itself, establish criminal liability. The central issue before the court, it said, is whether the redactions made by the FBI and DEA are lawful under US law.
The Presidency also dismissed claims that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and his associates are central to the proceedings, saying neither Atiku nor Karl von Batten is a party to the case.
According to the statement, Greenspan has until September 11, 2026, to file an opposition and reply to the defendants’ and Tinubu’s processes, while the FBI, DEA and Tinubu have until September 18, 2026, to respond.
The Presidency urged the media and the public to distinguish between the actual court proceedings and political commentary, emphasising that the outcome will be determined by the US District Court based on the evidence, applicable law and arguments presented by the parties.