As the October ending deadline for the release of his confidential files looms, President Bola Tinubu has asked a United States Court to block the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency and other United States services from making the records public.
Tinubu’s lawyers in the U.S. have filed motions to appear in an ongoing freedom of information action brought against the U.S. organisations where records that may help answer questions about the president’s real identity and decades-long endeavours are domiciled.
Christopher Carmichael, one of the lawyers who represented Tinubu in the recent Chicago records case, filed the motion, dated October 18, 2023, stating that he was a lawyer in good standing to appear in the case in the FOIA lawsuit underway in Washington D.C., according to court filings seen by PG.
“Pursuant to Civil Local Rule 83.2(c), Bryan A. Carey moves for the admission and appearance of attorney Christopher Carmichael pro hac vice in the above-entitled action,” Mr Carey, who practices in D.C., said on Mr Carmichael’s behalf. “This motion is supported by the Declaration of Christopher Carmichael. As set forth in Mr. Carmichael’s declaration, he is admitted and an active member in good standing.”
What informed Tinubu’s expectation that he could block U.S. agencies from complying with federal disclosure regulations remained unclear. Mr Carmichael did not immediately return a request seeking comments, and the president’s lead lawyer in the U.S., Oluwole Afolabi, told PG he could not comment on the case until it has officially commenced.
The lawyers would work to file a full argument soonest in order to stand a chance of being able to argue any reliefs before the October 31 deadline.
Tinubu was previously investigated for narcotics trafficking in the U.S. in the 1990s, during which he was compelled to forfeit $460,000 via a federal court order in Chicago.
The FBI said it was planning to release the records before the end of October to Aaron Greenspan, the proprietor of PlainSite, a website that pushes anti-corruption and transparency in public service.
Several other U.S. institutions, including the U.S. State Department, Internal Revenue Service, and Drug Enforcement Administration, have all indicated readiness to turn over thousands of pages of Tinubu-related records.
The move by Tinubu came two weeks after he lost a fierce battle to block a federal court in Chicago from releasing his academic records to Atiku Abubakar, one of his political rival in Nigeria.
The school ultimately released the records, which showed that a certain Bola Tinubu was admitted into the school in 1977.
With PG report
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