The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has confirmed that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was the subject of a criminal investigation into drug-trafficking activities in the early 1990s.
The FBI made the disclosure in a sworn statement filed on August 28, 2026, at the US District Court for the District of Columbia.
The statement was filed as part of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case seeking access to FBI records related to Tinubu.
The FBI said the records were compiled during investigations into several people over drug-trafficking crimes.
It also noted that the court had already confirmed that an investigation involving Tinubu had been officially acknowledged.
The development followed an April 2025 ruling by US District Judge Beryl Howell, who ordered the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to process records that could legally be released.
However, the ruling did not establish that Tinubu committed a drug-trafficking offence or that he was convicted of any crime.
The records were requested by US transparency activist Aaron Greenspan, who sought Tinubu’s FBI file and interview records from an investigation conducted between 1992 and 1993.
The FBI has withheld some parts of the records, citing privacy concerns, protection of confidential sources and law-enforcement methods.
A Washington-based lobbying firm hired by former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar shared parts of the FBI statement and said it was released to counter claims that Tinubu had never been investigated.
However, Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Media and Public Communications, Sunday Dare, dismissed the development as politically motivated.
Dare accused Atiku and the lobbying firm of using old US records to create controversy ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
He said the FBI documents should not be presented as evidence that Tinubu committed a crime, adding that the President’s lawyers had opposed further disclosure of the records on privacy grounds.
Tinubu’s legal team has maintained that the withholding of some records is based on US laws protecting confidential investigative information.