US Court Rejects FBI, CIA Request For Release of Tinubu’s Personal Records 

An urgent request for the release of President Bola Tinubu’s private information was denied by the US court for the northern district of Columbia.

The American Aaron Greenspan application aimed to push leading US law enforcement organisations, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, Internal Revenue Service (IRS), FBI, and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), to expedite the release of Tinubu’s dossier.

Judge Beryl Howell denied the request, stating that Greenspan did not fulfil the requirements for approving a request of that kind.

“Plaintiff has failed even to attempt to argue how his request may overcome those exemptions and achieve a likelihood of success on the merits,” Howell said.

“This failure to address this important factor in his emergency motion weighs strongly in favour of denying his motion.

“Plaintiff falls far short of satisfying this standard. He has not supplied the court with any indication of a concrete, actual threat that he will suffer in the absence of an injunction.

“While his Emergency Motion states that a Nigerian Supreme Court hearing is scheduled to occur in the coming days, plaintiff cites no injury he will suffer that is in any way traceable to the relief requested in this motion.”

The judge added that the request “may be of a highly sensitive and private nature” and that “the subject of those documents, Bola A. Tinubu, has had no opportunity to protect his privacy interests in any such records”.

“For the foregoing reasons, it is hereby ordered that plaintiff’s Emergency Motion for a Hearing to Compel Immediate Document Production, ECF No. 17, is denied. SO ORDERED,” the judge said.

Greenspan had charged that by failing to release the private information within the allotted period, the law enforcement authorities had broken the Freedom of Information Act.

“Purported federal investigations into President Tinubu and one Mueez Adegboyega Akande, who is now deceased,” he said the materials linked to.

On October 23, the Nigerian Supreme Court started deliberating over the appeals contesting Tinubu’s election.

The results of the election and the decision of the petitions tribunal affirming Tinubu’s victory were challenged by Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), and Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the most recent elections.

The supreme court postponed making a decision on the appeals on Monday.