A Washington lobbying firm working for former Nigerian vice president Atiku Abubakar has handed more than 60 pages of old US Department of Justice papers to the Trump administration and members of Congress. The papers cover a 1993 civil case that tied bank accounts held by Bola Tinubu to money from a heroin ring operating in Chicago in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The firm Von Batten Montague York says many US officials never knew about the case before. In a public statement the group called the matter a global problem not just a Nigerian or American one. It pointed to World Health Organization numbers showing about 600000 people die worldwide each year from drug use with nearly 80 percent of those deaths tied to opioids like heroin.
Court records from the Northern District of Illinois show federal investigators looked at a network that moved white heroin into the Chicago area between 1988 and 1991. The government named three people in the civil forfeiture complaint Bola Ahmed Tinubu Adegboyega Mueez Akande and Abiodun Agbele. Investigators said proceeds from the drug sales went into several US bank accounts opened and controlled by Tinubu. At the time Tinubu worked at Mobil Oil Nigeria and reported a modest monthly salary yet the accounts held large sums that reached well over one million dollars.
Authorities froze the accounts in 1992. In 1993 a US district court ordered the forfeiture of 460000 dollars from one of Tinubu’s accounts at First Heritage Bank after a negotiated civil settlement. Other money was returned to him. Tinubu was never charged with a crime and has always denied any wrongdoing.
The lobbying firm claims Tinubu has spent large amounts of Nigerian public money trying to keep the documents buried and to win support from President Trump. The group says this is happening while ordinary Nigerians face rising economic hardship insecurity and social problems. It states that former vice president Atiku directed the firm to act because Nigeria is too important for people to stay quiet.
Separate Freedom of Information Act lawsuits filed in 2023 by American researcher Aaron Greenspan seek more records from the FBI DEA and other agencies about the same investigation. Courts have ordered the release of some files but the process has faced repeated delays. Tinubu’s lawyers have recently joined US government requests for more time to respond.
The firm frames the issue as one that affects the dignity and future of Nigeria as a whole rather than any single region. It says the long period of difficulty under Tinubu will end and the country will return to a path of safety and growth. Tinubu’s side has not issued a new public response to the latest lobbying push but has previously rejected all claims of criminal involvement.
