President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has formally joined the U.S. Department of Justice’s request for a 10-day extension to file a response in the ongoing legal battle over the release of records linking him to alleged drug trafficking.

The filing, recently submitted by Tinubu’s legal team, was posted online by Von Batten-Montague-York, L.C., the U.S.-based policy advisory and lobbying firm retained by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

In a notice of joiner filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Tinubu’s attorneys formally joined the defendants’ motion for a 10-day extension of time to file a response to the motion for summary judgment in the case.

“Intervenor joins Defendants’ motion for a 10-day extension of time to file response to the motion for summary judgment (DE 92), in as much as Intervenor requests that the responses remain on the same schedule,” the notice states.

The document, signed by Christopher W. Carmichael and Victor P. Henderson of Henderson Parks, LLC, indicates that Tinubu is seeking to align his response schedule with that of the defendants. According to the filing, the plaintiff opposes the request, while the defendant does not.

However, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell has swiftly denied the extension request, the lobbying firm reported.

Lobbying Firm Alleges Political Interference

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Von Batten-Montague-York alleged that Tinubu is using the delay to exert political influence in Washington.

“We just received a copy of President Bola Tinubu’s filing from just two business days ago. Not surprisingly, President Tinubu has now formally joined @TheJusticeDept’s request for a 10-day extension, which the judge has now swiftly denied,” the firm wrote.

The firm further alleged that Tinubu wants to use any delay to “call upon his friends in DC to argue that the release of these files would harm U.S.-Nigeria relations and undermine his ability to work with the United States to combat terrorism and the killing of Christians in Northern Nigeria.”

The lobbying group warned against what it described as improper interference in the judicial process.

“We believe that any U.S. government personnel who improperly attempt to interfere with the judicial or FOIA process on behalf of Nigerian President Tinubu to prevent the lawful release of these records should be exposed and fired,” the firm stated.

The firm also referenced President Donald Trump’s stance on such matters, stating: “President @realDonaldTrump and the United States do not protect individuals alleged by the DOJ to have been part of a criminal organization that smuggled heroin into the United States.”

Case Background

The case, Aaron Greenspan v. Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, et al., Civil Action No. 23-1816 (BAH), has been pending for more than three years. The records being sought are connected to allegations and investigations concerning Tinubu and alleged drug-trafficking activities.

SaharaReporters had previously reported how President Tinubu’s $460,000 asset forfeiture was linked to a 1990s U.S. federal investigation into a Chicago-based heroin trafficking ring.

The link stems directly from U.S. court documents and affidavits from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which detailed how funds in bank accounts controlled by Tinubu were tied to narcotics proceeds.

The U.S. government targeted a narcotics ring operated by Chicago-based drug kingpins Adegboyega Mueez Akande and Abiodun Agbele, which trafficked white heroin into Illinois between 1988 and 1991.

IRS Special Agent Kevin Moss established that funds generated from the drug ring were systematically deposited into multiple U.S. bank accounts opened and controlled by Tinubu. In January 1992, U.S. authorities obtained a court order to freeze accounts holding more than $1.4 million linked to Tinubu.

In 1993, a U.S. District Court ordered that $460,000 held in an account in the name of Bola Tinubu be forfeited to the U.S. government, with the court explicitly decreeing that the funds represented proceeds of narcotics trafficking or were involved in financial transactions violating money laundering laws.

Tinubu has consistently denied any wrongdoing and has rejected allegations linking him to drug trafficking.

His legal team has maintained that the case was an in rem civil forfeiture proceeding, meaning the lawsuit was filed against the money itself, not against Tinubu as an individual, and that he was never arrested, arraigned, indicted, or criminally convicted for a drug offence in the United States.