The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation has confirmed that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was investigated in connection with a drug-trafficking investigation in the early 1990s.
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 forms part of a Freedom of Information Act case seeking access to FBI records relating to Tinubu and investigations conducted during the period.
In the declaration, the FBI stated that the records sought were compiled as part of an investigation involving several individuals suspected of drug-trafficking offences.
“The responsive records herein were compiled in furtherance of the FBI’s investigation of multiple individuals for drug trafficking crimes,” the agency stated.
The FBI also acknowledged that the existence of an investigation involving Tinubu had already been officially recognised by the court.
“The court has already determined that an official acknowledgement had been made of an investigation of Bola Tinubu,” the declaration stated.
The latest filing follows an April 2025 ruling by US District Judge Beryl Howell, who directed the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration to process records requested under the FOIA.
Howell had ruled that the agencies could no longer rely on so-called “Glomar” responses to refuse to confirm or deny the existence of records relating to Tinubu.
The judge found that the agencies had not established sufficient privacy grounds to conceal the fact that Tinubu had been investigated.
However, the ruling did not establish that Tinubu committed a drug-trafficking offence, nor did it find that he had been convicted of any crime.
The FOIA requests were submitted by American transparency activist Aaron Greenspan, who sought access to the FBI’s records concerning Tinubu.
Among the materials requested were the entire FBI file for Bola Ahmed Tinubu and FBI Form 302 interview records involving Tinubu in FBI Case No. 245-IP-71386-UUUUUU, covering investigations conducted between 1992 and 1993.
The requests are connected to a wider effort to obtain records relating to a Chicago heroin-trafficking investigationfrom the early 1990s.
The FBI has released some records connected to the requests but continues to withhold or redact portions of the material.
According to the agency, some information remains protected under FOIA exemptions covering personal privacy, confidential sources, law-enforcement techniques and information whose disclosure could place individuals at risk.
The FBI said it could not publicly disclose the full details supporting some of the exemptions.
The latest court filing therefore confirms the existence of a historical FBI investigation involving Tinubu, but it does not by itself establish that the Nigerian President committed a drug-trafficking offence.
The dispute over the remaining records is continuing in the US federal court.
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