The FBI and DEA have requested additional time to comply with a court order to release documents related to a 1990s drug investigation allegedly involving President Bola Tinubu. In a joint status report filed May 1, 2025, the agencies asked the U.S. District Court for a 90-day extension to complete their search for responsive records, pushing the new deadline to August.
The request comes after Judge Beryl Howell’s April ruling mandated the release of documents by May 2 in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed by transparency activist Aaron Greenspan. The case seeks records about a Chicago-based drug trafficking and money laundering investigation that reportedly involved Tinubu and three others during the 1990s.
Greenspan strongly opposed the extension, arguing the agencies have had sufficient time since his initial 2022 FOIA requests. He proposed a compressed timeline, demanding at least partial document release within a week. “The defendants provide no rationale for why their search should take 90 days,” Greenspan stated, noting some responsive documents have already been identified.
The records request has drawn significant attention in Nigeria, where Tinubu’s past has been a recurring subject of political discourse. The president’s office has previously dismissed the investigation as irrelevant to his current leadership, while opposition figures have cited it as a lingering concern.
Legal analysts note the extension request follows a familiar pattern in high-profile FOIA cases, where government agencies often cite processing complexities. The court must now decide whether to grant the full 90-day extension or impose a shorter deadline as Greenspan requests.
This development ensures the document release will remain a talking point in Nigeria’s political landscape through mid-2025, potentially coinciding with heightened political activities ahead of the 2027 election cycle. Neither the presidency nor U.S. authorities have commented on the substance of the pending records.
