Nigerians Have No Right To Access Tinubu’s Records – US
- As Tinubu’s Aide Rubbishes Claim
Law enforcement agencies of the United States government have held that Nigerians do not have any “rights” to request access to any of President Bola Tinubu‘s past records as he is an asset of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Osun Defender reports that the declaration was expressed in a memorandum filed before the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, by the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
The documents were shared by investigative journalist, David Hundeyin, on his X page, on Tuesday night.
Recall that the same court had declined an emergency application seeking to compel top US law enforcement agencies to hasten the release of confidential information on President Bola Tinubu, during the legal dispute that characterised the 2023 Presidential Eletion in Nigeria.
Hundeyin said the three US agencies had filed their defence against the summary judgment concerning President Bola Tinubu’s drug trafficking investigation records.
Yesterday in federal court, the CIA, FBI, and DEA filed a memorandum opposing our motion for summary judgment in the FOIA disclosure case about President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s drug trafficking investigation records, where we are seeking to have the redactions removed from the… pic.twitter.com/4XldyW3yHJ
— David Hundeyin (@DavidHundeyin) November 12, 2024
He wrote: ‘Yesterday (Monday) in federal court, the CIA, FBI, and DEA filed a memorandum opposing our motion for summary judgment in the FOIA disclosure case about President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s drug trafficking investigation records, where we are seeking to have the redactions removed from the (partially released) files.
“In the filing, the CIA effectively confirmed that Nigeria’s sitting president is an active CIA asset. An excerpt from the CIA filing reads:
“Human sources can be expected to furnish information to the CIA only when they are confident the CIA can and will do everything in its power to prevent the public disclosure of their cooperation. In the case of a person who has been cooperating with the CIA, official confirmation of that cooperation could cause the targets to take retaliatory action against that person or against their family or friends.
“It also places in jeopardy every individual with whom the cooperating individual has had contact. Thus, the indiscretion of one source in a chain of intelligence sources can damage an entire spectrum of sources.
“As such, confirming or denying the existence of records on a particular foreign national, like Tinubu, reasonably could be expected to cause damage to U.S. national security by indicating whether or not the CIA maintained any human intelligence sources related to Tinubu, and identifying any access or lack of access any such sources had to intelligence concerning him ”
“And if that wasn’t bad enough, the DEA’s filing included a paragraph that literally said: “We oppose full, unredacted disclosure of the DEA’s Bola Tinubu heroin trafficking investigation records because we believe that while Nigerians have a right to be informed about what their government is up to, they do not have a right to know what their president is up to.”
“At this point, I think there is nothing more to be said about the direct role that the US government plays in ensuring that Africa is constantly destabilised and afflicted with terrible leaders who create poverty and devastation.”
Reacting to the development, President Tinubu’s Special Assistant on Social Media, Dada Olusegun recalled the many allegations against his principal, just as he placed the CIA asset claim in the same category.
He shared on X, “They told you he was a lady, you believed. They told you Yorubas don’t bear Tinubu, you believed. They told you he can’t be allowed into the US, you believed. They told you his name is not his name, you believed. Now they brought another one. Here you are as usual. Tragic.”
Sodiq Yusuf is a trained media practitioner and journalist with considerable years of experience in print, broadcast, and digital journalism. His interests cover a wide range of causes in politics, governance, sports, community development, and good governance.
