U.S. Court has ordered the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to make public documents pertaining to the criminal investigation into President Bola Tinubu’s alleged drug trafficking.
In an April 8 decision, U.S. District Court of Columbia Judge Beryl Howell directed both agencies to look for and handle non-exempt documents related to FOIA requests made by American scholar Aaron Greenspan.
Greenspan filed 12 FOIA requests between 2022 and 2023, requesting documents on Tinubu, Lee Andrew Edwards, Mueez Abegboyega Akande, and Abiodun Agbele, as well as details on a Chicago narcotics ring that was active in the early 1990s.
The FBI and DEA previously refused to acknowledge or deny the existence of requested information by issuing “Glomar responses.” But in this instance, the court decided that such answers were inappropriate, and the agencies are now required to search the area and provide non-exempt records related to the issue.
The judgement reads: “The FBI and DEA have both officially confirmed investigations of Tinubu relating to the drug trafficking ring.
“Any privacy interests implicated by the FOIA requests to the FBI and DEA for records about Tinubu are overcome by the public interest in the release of such information.
“Since the FBI and DEA have provided no information to establish that a cognizable privacy interest exists in keeping secret the fact that Tinubu was a subject of criminal investigation.
“They have failed to meet their burden to sustain their Glomar responses and provide an additional reason why these responses must be lifted.”
Upholding the CIA’s Glomar response, the judge ruled that the “Plaintiff is entitled to summary judgment as to each of the four Glomar responses asserted by defendants FBI and DEA, while defendant CIA is entitled to summary judgment, since its Glomar response was properly asserted.”