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In a last-ditch effort to prevent an early release of records relating to his residency in the United States, President Bola Tinubu has filed an application before a United States District Court of Columbia against the country's agencies.
Tinubu listed defendants in the lawsuit to include the Executive Office for US Attorneys, the U.S. Department of State, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
The President brought the application as an intervenor following a Freedom of Information request made by an IT consultant, Aaron Greenspan, on July 21, 2022
Citing “unusual circumstances,” the concerned agencies had hitherto vowed to keep the lid on the sought records, saying Tinubu's files won't be made public until 2026. However, the applicants have remained dogged in their push for an early release of the documents.
One of the lawyers who represented the President in the recent academic record case, Christopher Carmichael, reportedly filed the application on October 18, 2023, under Civil Local Rule 83.2(c).
In September, it was reported that approximately 2,500 documents relating to Tinubu and domiciled in the FBI database, would be released in batches from this October. The documents would purportedly answer questions regarding controversies surrounding the President, including his real identity.
Tinubu made a similar move recently when he filed as an intervenor in an application by his political foes and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, before another court in the U.S., seeking the release of his academic records from the Chicago State University (CSU).
On that occasion, Justice Nancy Maldonado overruled him and ordered the release of his academic credentials to Atiku under deposition from CSU.