The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI, has confirmed that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was investigated in the early 1990s in connection with alleged drug trafficking activities.
The confirmation was contained in a sworn declaration filed by the FBI on August 28, 2026, before the US District Court for the District of Columbia.
The filing was made in a Freedom of Information Act, FOIA, case seeking access to FBI records relating to Tinubu.
In the declaration, the FBI stated that the records being sought were compiled as part of an investigation involving multiple individuals over alleged drug trafficking crimes.
“The responsive records herein were compiled in furtherance of the FBI’s investigation of multiple individuals for drug trafficking crimes,” the agency said.
The FBI further stated that the court had already determined that there had been an official acknowledgement of an investigation involving Tinubu.
The latest development followed an April 2025 ruling by US District Judge Beryl Howell, who held that the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration, DEA, could no longer rely on so called Glomar responses to refuse to confirm or deny the existence of records concerning Tinubu.
Howell ruled that the agencies had not established sufficient privacy grounds to conceal the fact that Tinubu had been investigated.
She subsequently ordered the agencies to process records requested under FOIA, subject to applicable legal exemptions.
However, the ruling did not establish that Tinubu committed a drug trafficking offence or that he was convicted of any crime.
The FOIA requests were filed by American transparency activist Aaron Greenspan, who sought the complete FBI file relating to Tinubu, as well as FBI 302 interview records involving him in FBI Case No. 245 IP 71386 UUUUUU between 1992 and 1993.
The requests were connected to efforts to obtain records relating to a Chicago heroin trafficking operation investigated by US authorities during the early 1990s.
The FBI has continued to withhold portions of the records, citing exemptions relating to personal privacy, confidential sources, law enforcement methods and information that could potentially endanger individuals.
The agency said it could not publicly disclose the full details of the reasons behind some of the exemptions.
