ABUJA — The Allied Peoples Movement has asked the United States to release portions of federal records concerning President Bola Tinubu that can be made public without putting witnesses, investigators or sensitive investigative methods at risk.
The opposition party made the request in a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday, August 30, 2026, as political activity builds ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
APM National Publicity Secretary, Yusuf Abubakar, said the party was not demanding the disclosure of information whose publication could compromise legitimate security or law-enforcement concerns. Instead, it urged US authorities to separate material that requires protection from information that can lawfully be disclosed.
The records are at the centre of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by American transparency activist Aaron Greenspan. A 2025 ruling by the US District Court for the District of Columbia shows that Greenspan sought investigative records from the FBI, DEA and CIA concerning Tinubu and Abiodun Agbele.
Greenspan’s requests include the FBI’s records relating to Tinubu and interview documents covering 1992 and 1993. Tinubu has intervened in the case and asked the court to reject Greenspan’s request for further disclosure, while arguing that privacy protections justify continued redactions and withholding of some records.
The FBI has also maintained that releasing some of the material could create risks for people connected to the records. The agency recently sought permission to give the court a confidential explanation for parts of its position rather than place all of the details on the public record.
For APM, however, the existence of material that may require protection should not result in a blanket refusal to disclose everything.
“The APM notes that the US authorities can release aspects of the report that will not endanger lives, expose witnesses, investigators or techniques used in the investigation.”
The party said greater disclosure was important because Tinubu is the sitting President and a prospective participant in the 2027 presidential contest. It argued that Nigerian voters should have access to relevant information before making their choice at the polls.
APM also brought up the 1993 US forfeiture involving $460,000 in funds associated with accounts linked to Tinubu. The issue has featured previously in Nigerian legal proceedings concerning his eligibility to contest the presidency.
The party contends that the forfeiture has implications under Section 137 of the 1999 Constitution and has urged US authorities to assist Nigerians in obtaining information about the matter. That remains APM’s interpretation of the constitutional effect of the forfeiture, rather than an established current judicial ruling.
In 2023, however, the Presidential Election Petition Court rejected a challenge based on the forfeiture. The tribunal found that the US proceeding was a civil forfeiture case and that the evidence before it did not establish that Tinubu had been indicted, arraigned, tried or convicted in the United States for a criminal offence.
The present US litigation is therefore focused on access to federal records and the extent to which information can be released under American law. APM is asking that material that does not require protection be made available as the country moves towards another presidential election.
