Von Batten Montague York says there is no plan to arrest President Bola Tinubu if he comes to New York for the United Nations gathering this month. The firm called any arrest rumor false. What it does promise is embarrassment on American soil and no private sit down with President Donald Trump.
The 5 September post repeated an earlier 31 August warning. The firm says an alleged 1990s deal with federal authorities would block a fresh prosecution for old heroin charges. As head of a UN member state Tinubu also has access and transit protection under the 26 June 1947 headquarters agreement. The lobbyists say that legal cover gets him into town but not into a closed room with Trump. They say senior Trump aides have already made clear the president will not meet privately with a man they call an alleged heroin trafficker.
The firm says FBI language describes Tinubu as part of a group that moved heroin from Nigeria into the United States in the 1980s and 1990s. It says world leaders from South Africa to Italy will arrive already briefed on those claims. If given the go ahead it says it will run a plan so people within a six mile radius of UN Headquarters hear that Tinubu is accused of helping send poison onto American streets. It says it will keep briefing the White House and Congress that Tinubu is a political liability.
The same firm works for former vice president Atiku Abubakar under a March 2026 twelve month contract worth one point two million dollars. The work is to raise Atikus name in Washington and counter Nigerian government talking points. The firm has pushed a District of Columbia records case filed by Aaron Greenspan after 2022 Freedom of Information Act requests. Judge Beryl Howell is hearing Greenspan versus Executive Office for United States Attorneys. Tinubu joined as an intervenor. The FBI and DEA produced 399 pages with redactions. Other agencies left after Glomar answers.
Special Adviser Bayo Onanuga said on 3 September the suit is a civil file fight not a criminal trial and that neither Atiku nor Karl Von Batten is a party. He cited a 4 February 2003 letter from the American Consulate in Lagos to Inspector General Tafa Balogun saying an FBI National Crime Information Center check found no arrest records wants or warrants for then Governor Tinubu. The firm says that letter is full of spelling and grammar errors and that a no arrest check is not proof agents never opened a case. It argues a deal or informant role could leave the arrest books clean while a drug file still sits in court.
The firm says the FBI has told the judge under oath that there was an official investigation of Tinubu and that the 399 pages were compiled in a drug trafficking probe. It also says an FBI paper asked the court to withhold wire tap recordings gathered while agents looked at several people for heroin crimes. The bureau cited Title Three wire tap law and FOIA Exemption 3. The firm notes the FBI wrote that privacy usually fades after death and says it believes Tinubu is the only targeted person from that old matter still alive.
The plaintiff must reply by 11 September 2026. The FBI DEA and Tinubu side must answer by 18 September 2026. The firm has asked to file a friend of the court brief arguing that the official Statehouse statement talking about the same files weakens Tinubus privacy claim under Exemption 7C.
It told the Justice Department about an unsolicited three million dollar offer and a private London meeting request that used disappearing messages. It later sent the FBI an information note naming Onanuga Sunday Dare and Aviation Minister Festus Keyamo over what it called a coordinated campaign against its work. Keyamo called the row a storm in a teacup. A side fight broke out over Von Battens unpaid seat on the Commission on Presidential Scholars after aides first denied the appointment then called it powerless. The firm has also claimed an APC linked person gave the EFCC fourteen days to arrest Atiku ahead of the 2027 vote.
