The Presidency has clarified that the United States government records case involving President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a civil Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) dispute and not a criminal case against him.
The clarification followed reports about an ongoing case before the United States District Court for the District of Columbia involving requests for records relating to Tinubu from several US government agencies.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, said the Presidency had taken note of what it described as recent speculative reports concerning the FOIA proceedings.
Onanuga explained that the matter centres on the disclosure of government records under US law and does not constitute a criminal charge, trial or judicial finding against the President.
“The matter is a civil records-disclosure dispute under the United States Freedom of Information Act. It is not a criminal case against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, nor has the court found him guilty of any criminal wrongdoing,” Onanuga said.
He stressed that the release or withholding of records under the FOIA does not, in itself, establish criminal liability, adding that the court is primarily concerned with determining whether the relevant agencies properly applied statutory exemptions to the requested records.
According to the Presidency, the case followed FOIA requests submitted by Aaron Greenspan in 2022 to several US government agencies seeking records relating to Tinubu.
After the agencies withheld some records or declined to confirm or deny their existence, Greenspan commenced the civil action in 2023.
The Presidency said Tinubu was subsequently permitted by the court to participate in the proceedings as an intervenor to protect his legal interests.
It explained that the court granted summary judgment in favour of the CIA, Executive Office for United States Attorneys, Department of State, Department of the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service, effectively removing those agencies from the remaining proceedings.
The unresolved aspects of the case, it said, involve the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which have produced 399 pages of records, with portions redacted in accordance with exemptions provided under US law.
The Presidency said the FBI and DEA had defended the redactions on grounds including the protection of grand jury proceedings, attorney-client and work-product privileges, law-enforcement information, personal privacy, confidential sources and investigative techniques.
Tinubu, it added, had also asserted his rights under FOIA Exemption 7(C), which protects against the disclosure of information that could result in an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.
The Presidency noted that the remaining issue before the court was whether the redactions made by the FBI and DEA were lawful under applicable US law, rather than whether the records established any criminal wrongdoing by the President.
“The release or withholding of records under FOIA does not itself establish criminal liability,” the statement added.
It urged the Nigerian media and the public to distinguish between verified court proceedings and political commentary, stressing that the outcome of the case rests with Judge Beryl Howell of the US District Court for the District of Columbia.
The statement also rejected recent comments by Karl Von Batten, saying neither he nor his client, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, was a party to the proceedings and accusing Von Batten of inaccurately portraying their role in the case.
The Presidency maintained that the court would determine the matter based on the evidence, applicable law and arguments presented by the parties, rather than political statements or speculation.
It called on the media to report the proceedings accurately and avoid presenting the civil FOIA dispute as a criminal case against President Tinubu.