The Presidency has dismissed a United States lobbying campaign linked to former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar over President Bola Tinubu’s old US records, describing it as a politically driven plot ahead of the 2027 elections.
Special Adviser to the President on Media and Public Communications, Sunday Dare, accused the Washington-based lobbying firm, Von Batten-Montague-York, L.C., of packaging political claims as intelligence reports and creating the false impression that its statements represented the position of the US government.
In a statement titled “Speculation as Classified Information: Atiku’s $1.2 Million Lobbying Gamble Exposed,” Dare alleged that US filings showed Atiku’s camp hired the firm on a 12-month contract reportedly worth $1.2m to push for the release of historical records involving Tinubu.
He insisted that the documents being promoted by the lobbyists were not official US government findings but “public relations materials” aimed at damaging the President politically.
“The reports being circulated from Washington are not the views of the United States government. They are political propaganda dressed up as classified information,” Dare said.
The controversy centres on attempts to obtain old US law enforcement records relating to Tinubu, including documents connected to a 1990s civil forfeiture case in which about $460,000 was forfeited to US authorities.
The matter is currently tied to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit in the US, where a request has been made for the release of additional records.
Tinubu’s legal team has argued that some portions of the documents remain protected under US privacy and law enforcement exemptions.
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria and member of Tinubu’s US legal team, Wole Afolabi, said the legal battle was not about hiding damaging information but about enforcing protections provided under American law.
According to him, US agencies had already released thousands of pages of documents, while the remaining redacted portions were being withheld to protect investigative methods, sources and agents.
Afolabi argued that if US authorities had found evidence of criminal wrongdoing against Tinubu, he would have faced prosecution, adding that civil forfeiture did not amount to a criminal conviction.
He also dismissed claims that the US government was shielding the President, saying the Department of Justice had cited protection of law enforcement procedures rather than any special favour to Tinubu.
The fresh clash has added another layer to the growing political battle between supporters of President Tinubu and Atiku, who has remained a leading opposition figure ahead of the 2027 presidential race.
