President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has joined a request by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) for an additional 10 days to respond to a motion in a long-running legal battle over the release of records linked to a past U.S. investigation involving allegations of drug trafficking.
According to a notice filed by Tinubu’s lawyers at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the Nigerian president asked to remain on the same response schedule as other defendants in the case.
Key Highlights:
- Tinubu’s lawyers joined a request for a 10-day extension to respond to a motion for summary judgment.
- The request was also supported by the U.S. Department of Justice.
- U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell rejected the extension request, according to the report.
- The case concerns records linked to a decades-old U.S. investigation involving Tinubu.
- The records include material connected to a $460,000 asset-forfeiture proceeding in 1993.
- Tinubu has consistently denied involvement in drug trafficking.
His lawyers maintain that the forfeiture was a civil proceeding against the money and did not constitute a criminal conviction against Tinubu.
The filing was reportedly made recently and later published online by Von Batten-Montague-York, L.C., a U.S.-based policy advisory and lobbying firm retained by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.
Tinubu’s legal team said it was joining the defendants’ request for an additional 10 days to respond to a motion for summary judgment. The filing indicated that the plaintiff opposed the request.
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However, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell subsequently rejected the request for the 10-day extension, according to the report.
Legal Battle Over Tinubu Investigation Records
The dispute forms part of Aaron Greenspan v. Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, et al., a case that has been pending for more than three years.
The lawsuit involves efforts to obtain government records connected to past investigations concerning Tinubu. The requested records reportedly involve agencies of the U.S. government and relate to an older investigation and asset-forfeiture proceedings.
The case has attracted renewed attention because of its potential to shed further light on records surrounding the investigation and the circumstances that led to the forfeiture of $460,000 associated with Tinubu.
U.S. court records cited in reports on the matter indicate that the money was forfeited to the U.S. government in 1993.
Tinubu Denies Drug Trafficking Allegations
Tinubu has consistently denied wrongdoing and rejected allegations that he was involved in drug trafficking.
His lawyers have maintained that the forfeiture was an in rem civil proceeding, meaning the legal action was directed against the money rather than Tinubu personally.
They have also stressed that Tinubu was never arrested, indicted, prosecuted or convicted of a drug offence in the United States.
The latest court filing has nevertheless renewed public interest in the decades-old investigation and the government records being sought.
A U.S.-based lobbying firm involved in the matter has accused Tinubu of attempting to use the delay to exert political influence in Washington. The firm has also suggested that arguments could be made that releasing the records might have implications for U.S.-Nigeria relations.
Those claims are allegations by the lobbying firm and have not been established as findings of the court.
The legal dispute over the release of the records remains ongoing.
