United States authorities have revealed that, they will not release immigration and other records of Nigerian President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu in their possession until 2026, a year before his first four years tenure would end.
According to reports, following a freedom of information request, the U.S. authorities including the State Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) cited ‘unusual circumstances’ for their refusal to release the records to the public until January 2026.
However, a civil lawsuit has been filed before Judge Beryl Howell of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C over the matter.
A request to the FBI, State Department, Department of Treasury, and Drug Enforcement Administration, among other federal and local agencies, has also been filed by an American public disclosure activist, Aaron Greenspan, seeking an urgent release of Tinubu’s immigration and criminal records.
Tinubu has however maintained that he did not commit any crimes during his decades-long residency in the U.S and had maintained ownership of his identity, despite allegations that, he might have changed names and education records in the past.
His real identity and education records allegedly contain omissions and contradictions that has not been explained to the public.
The Nigerian president had said under oath to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) while seeking to be Lagos State governor in 1999, that he attended University of Chicago.
However, the university was reported to have disowned him. But, another American school, Chicago State University, had confirmed a Bola Tinubu attended the school but did not say whether it was the Nigerian president.
Documents from the school showed that a person bearing Bola Tinubu, who attended the school in the 1970s, was a female.
Tinubu had also stated under oath in 1999 that he attended primary and secondary schools in Lagos and Ibadan in the 1950s and 1960s, but he expunged those assertions from his latest INEC application form ahead of this year’s general elections in February.
He however did not explain why he removed the claims, although there was no evidence that the primary school he said he attended ever existed in Nigeria.
Tinubu, 71, was allegedly named as a launderer of proceeds of drug trafficking in U.S. court documents in 1993. He forfeited $460,000 at the time.
The records are a key part of the ongoing challenge against his election as president of Nigeria before the Presidential Election Petitions tribunal in Abuja.
These issues prompted Greenspan, who runs PlainSite, a website that holds files from American courts and institutions, to file multiple requests to U.S. authorities in possession of documents that could help clarify some of the crucial questions concentrating the minds of Nigerians.
The State Department is believed to have records of whether or not the person who applied for a U.S. visa and travelled as Bola Tinubu in the 1970s is the same person running Nigeria today.
The FBI could throw more light on how Tinubu became involved in drugs in the U.S. and other criminal charges that he might have faced but which were not in public records.
The State Department in a letter to Greenspan in a May 15, 2023 stated this: “This office will not be able to respond within the 20 days provided by the statute due to unusual circumstances,”
In a previous message by the FBI to Greenspan on August 4, 2022, the said: “Please be advised that ‘unusual circumstances’ apply to the processing of your request.”
However, on March 22, 2023, the FBI said it would try to release all documents relating to Tinubu in its possession, but not until January 2026 at the earliest.
Other agencies, including the Department of Treasury’s Internal Revenue Service and the Drug Enforcement Administration, also said they wouldn’t release the documents on the same grounds.
The FBI also said Mr Greenspan “failed to demonstrate that the requested information is in the public interest because it is likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of the operations and activities of the government.”
But the activist promptly responded by detailing how Mr Tinubu’s drug forfeiture case in Chicago drew the most eyes to his organisation’s website over the past year. The website has over 15 million records.
All the agencies have now been summoned to appear in court to show course why records relating to the Nigerian president were deemed unusual and inconsequential to be released to the public.
On July 17, assistant U.S. attorney Jared Littman entered an appearance as the lawyer representing all the agencies, and promptly requested a delay until August 28, 2023, to file a response to the lawsuit, which was instituted on June 12, 2023.
