A Washington lobbying firm said Wednesday that officials across the White House, Congress, the State Department and the United States Mission to the United Nations accepted its case that Nigerian President Bola Tinubu should not meet President Donald Trump.
Dr. Karl Von Batten of Von Batten Montague York LC thanked those offices for reviewing the evidence around the clock and reaching that conclusion. He also thanked Trump for setting the standard the firm followed.
The firm said America leads the free world and must not look as if a man alleged to have belonged to a criminal group that moved heroin from Nigeria into the United States in the 1980s and 1990s can sit down and strike deals with the American president. It said the country should keep pushing its interests while protecting its good name.
Von Batten pointed to public remarks by Nigeria’s ambassador to the United Nations, Jimoh Ibrahim, as a signal to other governments that America cannot be purchased. Ibrahim had earlier told reporters that Tinubu would attend the United Nations General Assembly, sit near Trump and speak on Nigeria’s reforms. A video of those comments circulated with the firm’s statement.
The allegations the firm raised date to a 1993 civil case in Illinois. United States prosecutors sought forfeiture of money in bank accounts held in Tinubu’s name, saying the funds came from a white heroin network that operated in Chicago and Indiana and involved figures such as Adegboyega Mueez Akande and Abiodun Agbele. A federal judge later ordered $460,000 from one account forfeited as narcotics proceeds or money tied to illegal financial deals. Other funds were returned under a settlement. Tinubu was not convicted in a criminal trial. He and his party have said the case targeted accounts rather than proving he ran the drug ring, and they have called the old files a political weapon.
The firm has spent months handing Department of Justice, FBI and DEA papers to American officials and arguing that any public meeting would look like an endorsement ahead of Nigeria’s 2027 election. It earlier claimed a multimillion dollar Nigerian effort to win a United Nations sideline meeting and White House support had collapsed. Nigeria later said Vice President Kashim Shettima would lead the delegation to the 81st General Assembly instead of Tinubu.
