Our reporter/ President Bola Tinubu on Monday applied to intervene and subsequently oppose a motion that would have all his records—criminal or otherwise—released by top U.S. security agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Specifically, Tinubu pleads that he would be “adversely affected” should the U.S. Court for the Northern District of Columbia in Washington D.C. deny his motion to intervene in the matter, according to Bryan A. Carey, the attorney representing the Nigerian leader.
“Mr Tinubu should be allowed to intervene because he has a direct interest in the records sought, his interests are not fully represented or protected by defendants, and his interests will be adversely affected if he is not permitted to intervene,” Mr Carey pleaded with the court in a filing on Monday.
Aaron Greenspan, owner of PlainSite, a website that advocates legal data transparency to end corruption in public service, had in 2022 filed a freedom of information request for Tinubu’s records. Mr Greenspan, a U.S. citizen, collaborated with Nigerian journalist David Hundeyin in applying for the request.
The FBI, last month, said it would comply with the request and release the sought records about 2500 pages in batches of 500 pages monthly starting October. Nigerians had eagerly anticipated the release of the records hoping they would clarify decades-long controversies about Tinubu’s background and his role in a narcotics dealing that led to his forfeiture of $460,000 in 1993.
However, the Nigerian leader is now ferociously fighting to keep those data hidden from the public, much as he did when he sought to prevent his primary opponent, Atiku Abubakar, from accessing his Chicago State University (CSU) records.
But responding to the filing on Monday, Greenspan, labelled President Bola Tinubu an “alleged criminal” using delay tactics to pause the release of his records by U.S. security agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
“Bola Ahmed Tinubu is an alleged criminal trying to buy time in a desperate attempt to cling to power in Nigeria, which the FOIA materials in this action directly threaten,” Greenspan told the U.S. Court for the Northern District of Columbia in Washington D.C. on Monday.
Greenspan, told a U.S. Court that the Nigerian president’s last-ditch effort to intervene in the five-month-old lawsuit was merely an attempt to buy time and stop his rivals from using the records against him at Nigeria’s Supreme Court where his election victory is being hotly contested.
Greenspan said he could see through Tinubu’s foot-dragging antics to fool the U.S. court into delaying the release of his records because he knew the documents could bungle his case at the apex court in Nigeria.
“To call Tinubu’s motion a last-ditch attempt at buying time is an understatement. This action has been pending in open court for approximately five months. Its filing was covered in Nigerian media,” asserted Mr Greenspan in his opposition to the Nigerian leader’s request.
“The timing of Tinubu’s submission is suspicious given the Nigerian Supreme Court’s simultaneous proceedings and should be treated as meritless accordingly,” he added.
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