By our reporter 30.8.2026
President Bola Tinubu has pleaded with a United States federal court not to entertain further hearing on the release of Federal Bureau of Investigation held records of drug related investigations involving him.
According to President Tinubu releasing the documents would violate his privacy rights. This follows a suit by Aaron Greenspan, founder of PlainSite seeking the release of the documents based on his freedom of information rights.
Tinubu, who joined the case as an intervenor, made the request in a fresh filing before the US District Court for the District of Columbia.
The President is urging the court to reject a motion for summary judgment filed by Greenspan and allow the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to retain redactions and withhold information from documents already released. Greenspan was engaged by African Democratic Congress presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar.
Greenspan had submitted Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests seeking records relating to Tinubu, including what he described as the “entire FBI file” on the Nigerian president and FBI interview records from 1992 to 1993.
The requests formed part of 12 FOIA applications submitted to six US federal agencies for investigative records connected to a Chicago heroin trafficking case from the early 1990s. Tinubu was among four individuals named in the requests.
In his latest filing, Tinubu argued that FOIA was created to promote transparency about government operations and not to provide private information about individuals contained in government records.
“Plaintiff’s motion should be denied because FOIA is not a tool for obtaining information the government collected about private individuals,” his lawyers argued.
They also relied on provisions of the US Privacy Act, arguing that the FBI and DEA had acted properly in redacting or withholding exempt information.
Tinubu’s lawyers also rejected Greenspan’s claim that the records should be released because Tinubu is Nigeria’s president.
They argued that public curiosity about the President’s background, political career or suitability for office does not amount to the kind of public interest recognised under FOIA.
According to the legal team, Greenspan’s filings show that his primary objective is to obtain information about Tinubu rather than uncover possible misconduct by the FBI, DEA or other US government agencies.