President Bola Tinubu on Friday pleaded with a US court not to order the @lTheJusticeDept (DOJ), FBI, and DEAHQ to release his alleged heroin-trafficking records.
In the pleading, Tinubu finally admits that the dispute involves criminal records concerning him and pleads with the court to block the records from being released.
President Tinubu cited his right to privacy as the reason the alleged heroin-trafficking records should not be released and states that the records are being sought “to influence politics in a foreign nation” (in other words, to make him lose the upcoming Nigerian presidential election).
He further goes on to essentially argue that even the Nigerian public’s interest in his background and fitness for office does not give the public a right under FOIA to obtain the withheld information in his law-enforcement records.
The court had earlier given Friday deadline for the @FBI to privately provide the court with sensitive documents related to the alleged heroin trafficking activities of Nigerian President Bola Tinubu.
Meanwhile, Von Batten-Montague-York an all republican policy advisory and lobbying firm based in Washington is reporting
that before the August recess, members of Congress were briefed on the growing drug trafficking problem in Nigeria under President Tinubu, raising serious concerns about Nigeria’s emerging reputation among key members of Congress as a narco state.
Those concerns, according to the firm, are not developing in a vacuum. A congressional report dated July 2026 states that “Nigeria is a source, transit point, and market for illicit recreational drugs (e.g., cocaine, #heroin, and methamphetamine).”
“As we reported last month, Congressman @RepRonnyJackson also sounded the alarm, during a discussion with Dr. Von Batten about the heroin trafficking allegations involving President Tinubu, over Nigeria potentially becoming a hub for South American drug cartels”, the report read.
“This brings us to an important question that we intend to raise during our meetings with members of Congress next week: Is #Nigeria slowly becoming a preferred destination for South American drug cartels because they are aware of President Tinubu’s alleged drug trafficking past, or is there something deeper or entirely different driving this development? We do not yet know the answer, but these are precisely the questions that the United States Government must ascertain as it examines both the allegations surrounding President Tinubu and the broader drug trafficking situation in Nigeria”, the report further stated.