Von Batten Montague York, L.C. has publicly praised US officials for what it described as a decision to prevent Nigerian President Bola Tinubu from meeting US President Donald Trump.
In a statement posted on its X account on September 23, Dr. Von Batten thanked staff at the White House, in Congress, at the State Department and at the United States Mission to the United Nations. He said those offices heard the firm’s case day and night, weighed the evidence and decided Tinubu had no business sitting down with Trump. He also thanked Trump and called him the firm’s North Star.
The firm said the United States leads the free world and must not look as if a man alleged to have been part of a group that moved heroin from Nigeria into America in the 1980s and 1990s can meet the president and strike deals. It said America should keep pushing its own interests without giving up its integrity.
The same post pointed to public remarks by Nigeria’s ambassador to the United Nations, Jimoh Ibrahim. The firm said that boast should warn other governments that the United States cannot be bought.
The statement follows earlier messages from the same firm. In those posts the group said a heavily lobbied meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly was off, that any hoped for endorsement of Tinubu ahead of Nigeria’s 2027 vote was off, and that a planned White House visit was off. It said Tinubu’s main aim had been a face to face meeting with Trump and a public show of support. It also said the push cost Nigerian taxpayers nine million dollars. Vice President Kashim Shettima led Nigeria’s team at the 81st General Assembly after Tinubu stayed away.
The firm has long cited a 1993 United States civil forfeiture case from Chicago. In that case federal agents said accounts in Tinubu’s name held money tied to a white heroin network that ran from Nigeria into Illinois and Indiana in the late 1980s and early 1990s. A court later ordered 460000 dollars from one account turned over to the United States under a settlement. Tinubu has denied criminal conduct. He was not convicted in a criminal trial in that matter.
Von Batten Montague York describes itself as a Republican partner advisory and lobbying shop in Washington. It has said it does not speak for Trump or the United States government and that final calls rest with American officials after they review the facts. The White House has not issued a matching public statement on the claimed meeting.
Von Batten Montague York concluded that the United States should continue advancing its national interests while avoiding actions that, in its view, could damage the country’s integrity.
