A U.S. federal judge has ruled that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is not obligated to release any records on Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, as there’s no evidence the agency collected intelligence on him.
The ruling came in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case filed by transparency advocate Aaron Greenspan and journalist David Hundeyin.
Judge Beryl Howell confirmed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) have already released documents related to their past investigations of Tinubu, including a 1990s narcotics case that led to a $460,000 forfeiture—an issue that resurfaced during Nigeria’s 2023 presidential election.
However, the judge instructed the FBI and DEA to continue searching their archives for any additional non-exempt records that may serve public interest.
The court has given the parties until May 2, 2025, to file an update. Meanwhile, the CIA’s “Glomar response” allows it to neither confirm nor deny the existence of such records, effectively ending its involvement in the case.
