A Washington lobbying firm has accused Nigerian President Bola Tinubu of trying to pull the world’s attention away from old American drug claims and a deadly mining arrest.
The firm Von Batten Montague York posted the charge on september 18 after Tinubu spoke about keeping young Nigerian tech firms at home. The group said the president is making big promises that no one in their right mind thinks will ever come true. It said he wants CNN Fox News and the BBC to talk about digital companies instead of the things he would rather hide.
Tinubu had just told the public that Nigeria has the talent and drive to build world class tech finance and service firms on its own soil. He said too many bright young people still feel they must set up shop and keep their ideas abroad just to get money and customers. He ordered officials to finish a full plan for digital free zones in 180 days. A 500 million dollar innovation campus called Itana in Lagos is already licensed and backed by the Africa Finance Corporation.
The lobbying firm answered by posting a large chart. The chart puts Tinubu beside former Panama ruler Manuel Noriega Honduras leader Juan Orlando Hernandez and Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro. It lists Tinubu under drug trafficking proceeds of trafficking and money laundering. It notes a United States civil forfeiture case filed in 2023 that is still open and says there has been no criminal conviction.
The same week thirty seven young men arrested as illegal gold miners died inside a locked civil defence cell in Minna Niger State. Survivors said the room was packed with no air and that officers ignored cries for help. Some said a stinging spray was used. Officials first blamed disease then ordered a probe and suspended officers. The firm said those same mines are the ones Tinubu is prepared to trade away to keep old FBI papers out of sight.
Von Batten Montague York is a Republican policy shop in Washington hired by former vice president Atiku Abubakar. The firm has said that Tinubu was part of a heroin smuggling ring from Nigeria into America in the 1980s and 1990s. It has released court papers it says come from the FBI and the Executive Office for United States Attorneys. This week it said new sworn FBI filings again confirm a search for Tinubu records tied to controlled drug buys grand jury work and electronic surveillance.
The firm also said it has clearance to file a 36 million dollar federal lawsuit in Washington against Tinubu and former aviation minister Femi Fani Kayode over alleged kidnap and death threats.
Tinubu’s team has called the firm a paid opposition voice and said its stories are political not official American findings. The president has not been charged with a crime in the United States. The civil forfeiture case remains open.
The clash comes as Nigeria heads toward a 2027 election and as Tinubu’s government showing and claiming progress on jobs and investment while families still struggle with food prices and fear of violence.
