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The Presidency has dismissed the controversy over United States law enforcement records involving President Bola Tinubu as politically motivated, insisting that his trip to Europe is unrelated to ongoing Freedom of Information Act proceedings.
In a statement posted on X, presidential spokesperson Sunday Dare said that a US lobbyist, Dr Karl Von Batten, represents “solely the position of an individual associated with Atiku-linked political interests”, not the US government or President Donald Trump.
Von Batten is a Washington-based lobbyist and founder of Von Batten-Montague-York, L.C., the strategic advisory and lobbying firm hired by African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar.
Atiku engaged Von Batten-Montague-York under a US government affairs and strategic advisory agreement registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
However, his identity and background have come under scrutiny.
For example, recent reporting notes that he is listed on LinkedIn as “Karl-Marx Edward Ikemefuna William George Okeke-Von Batten”, while the 2026 FARA filing involving Atiku uses Karl Von Batten. A 2022 FARA filing used Karl-Marx Edward Okeke-Von Batten.
Dare’s statement follows recent attention to an ongoing US Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking the release of alleged drug records held by American law enforcement agencies concerning Tinubu.
The Presidency accused those behind the latest controversy of trying to link Tinubu’s foreign trip to the US legal proceedings.
“This orchestrated distraction attempts to tie the President’s movements to foreign legal proceedings,” the spokesman said.
“But the facts are clear: President Tinubu is on a previously scheduled annual leave, and there is absolutely no connection between the President’s European trip and the ongoing U.S. FOIA proceedings.”
Tinubu left Abuja for Europe on August 30 for a three-week working vacation as part of his annual leave, according to the State House.
The Presidency said London would be his first stop and that he would return to Nigeria after the leave.
The controversy follows developments in the long-running FOIA case brought by American transparency activist Aaron Greenspan against several US agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Drug Enforcement Administration.
Greenspan is seeking access to records relating to historical investigations involving Tinubu, including the FBI’s complete file on him and interview records from 1992 and 1993.
The case also concerns records connected to a 1993 civil forfeiture proceeding involving approximately $460,000 linked to Tinubu.
Last week, Tinubu’s legal team filed a submission asking a US court to maintain the FBI and DEA’s redactions and withholdings, arguing that the President retains privacy interests in the contents of investigative files.
The legal team asked the court to deny Greenspan’s motion for summary judgment and allow the agencies’ redactions and withholdings to stand.
The presidential spokesman, however, described reports surrounding the matter as built on “falsehoods, contradictions, anonymous claims, and total absence of documentary evidence,” arguing that the controversy represented a “classic exercise in legal opportunism” centred on decades-old U.S. proceedings.
The statement also referenced Oluwole Afolabi, a member of Tinubu’s US legal team, who recently defended the President’s intervention in the FOIA case during an appearance on Channels Television.
Afolabi argued that efforts to withhold parts of the requested records were based on US legal provisions governing confidential investigative materials and privacy protections, rather than an attempt to conceal damaging information about the President.
He also argued that the 2027 election would ultimately be decided by Tinubu’s ability to persuade Nigerian voters, not by historical documents.
However, the legal dispute has gained political significance after reports of a sworn FBI declaration filed in a US court case stating that Tinubu was the subject of a criminal investigation involving the FBI and DEA in the early 1990s.
The disclosure does not, by itself, establish that Tinubu committed a crime or was convicted of any offence. But it has intensified scrutiny of the records being sought in the FOIA case and of Tinubu’s efforts to prevent further disclosure.
Court records from the case show that Greenspan’s FOIA requests concern criminal investigative documents allegedly generated during an investigation into an international drug trafficking and money laundering ring in the early 1990s. The litigation remains ongoing.
Dare accused the opposition of using the controversy to compensate for what he described as an absence of a credible policy alternative ahead of the 2027 election.
“When a political camp invests millions not into building grassroots infrastructure, agricultural masterplans, or industrial blueprints, but into hiring foreign mouthpieces to manufacture fictitious crises, they confirm their detachment from the everyday realities of ordinary Nigerians,” the statement said.
Dr. Karl Von Batten’s comments represent solely the position of an individual associated with Atiku-linked political interests, not the U.S. government or President Trump.
This orchestrated distraction attempts to tie the President’s movements to foreign legal proceedings, but… pic.twitter.com/vqV0AGgV0L— Sunday Dare,CON (@SundayDareSD) September 1, 2026
