.Say ‘we need 90 days extension’
By Yahaya Umar, Abuja
U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI, and the Drug Enforcement Administration, DEA, have informed a U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that they require an additional 90 days to produce investigation reports related to an alleged drug case involving President Bola Tinubu from the 1990s.
However, the plaintiff, an American researcher Aaron Greenspan rejected the proposal and instead suggested a 14-day extension for the U.S. agencies to produce the records.
It was gathered that the FBI and DEA made the extension request in a Joint Status Report submitted to the court.
It would be recalled that a U.S. District Court for the District Court of Columbia, had earlier in April ordered remaining parties in the matter, apart from the Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, to jointly file the report on the status of any outstanding issues in the case, as described in the accompanying order to release the documents today.
The orders it was gathered, came from Judge Beryl Howell, on a freedom of information request, which he affirmed that withholding same from public disclosure is “neither logical nor plausible”.
The suit was filed by Greenspan, in June 2023 under the Freedom of Information Act, FOIA, against the offices of the US agencies, accusing them of violating the FOIA by failing to release within the statutory time “documents relating to purported federal investigations into” Tinubu and one other identified by documents as Abiodun Agbele.
Greenspan, had between 2022 and 2023, filed 12 FOIA requests with six different US government agencies and components seeking information about a joint investigation conducted by the FBI, IRS, DEA, and the US Attorney’s Offices for the Northern District of Indiana and Northern District of Illinois.
In this vein, the applicant sought criminal investigative records about four named individuals “allegedly associated with the drug ring: Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Lee Andrew Edwards, Mueez Abegboyega Akande, and Abiodun Agbele”.
Meanwhile, in a recent statement via his official X (formerly Twitter) platform, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, said the reports in question have been in the public domain for more than three decades and contain no indictments against the Tinubu.
“There is nothing new to be revealed. The report by Agent Moss of the FBI and the DEA report have been in the public space for more than 30 years. The reports did not indict the Nigerian leader. The lawyers are examining the ruling,” Onanuga stated.
While the CIA was also included in the original suit, the court upheld its Glomar ( “neither confirm nor deny) response, granting the agency summary judgment and allowing it to withhold any relevant records.
However, the Nigerian Presidency insists the ruling does not bring new revelations to light an that President Tinubu was never indicted in any investigation.
