President Bola Tinubu has moved to block records relating to him from being disclosed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency and other United States agencies, according to a Peoples Gazette report.
It was reported in September that from October, the FBI would start releasing approximately 2,500 documents relating to President Tinubu in its database.
According to The Gazette, Christopher Carmichael, one of the lawyers who represented Mr Tinubu in the recent controversial academic record case, filed motions to appear in an ongoing freedom of information action brought against the U.S. organisations where records that may help answer questions about the president’s real identity and decades-long endeavours are domiciled.
The lawyer brought his motion in accordance with Civil Local Rule 83.2(c).
Peoples Gazette reports that Mr Bryan A. Carey, who practises in D.C., said on Mr Carmichael’s behalf, “This motion is supported by the Declaration of Christopher Carmichael. As set forth in Mr. Carmichael’s declaration, he is admitted and an active member in good standing.”
Mr Carmichael did not respond immediately to a request for comment, and the president’s lead lawyer in the United States, Oluwole Afolabi, told The Gazette that he could not comment on the matter until it had formally begun.
The lawyers would work to file a thorough argument as soon as possible in order to argue any reliefs before the October 31 deadline.
The FBI had said it was planning to release the record before the end of October to Aaron Greenspan, the proprietor of PlainSite, a website that pushes anti-corruption and transparency in public service.
Several other U.S. institutions, including the U.S. State Department, Internal Revenue Service, and Drug Enforcement Administration, have all indicated readiness to turn over thousands of pages of records related to Tinubu.
President Tinubu recently lost an emergency appeal to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago to stop Chicago State University from releasing his academic records to Atiku Abubakar, his opponent in the 2023 presidential election.
In her ruling on Tinubu’s emergency application in case No. 23 CV 05099, Judge Nancy L. Maldonado overruled “President Tinubu’s objections to Magistrate Judge Gilbert’s recommended ruling, and therefore adopts the ruling in full”.
On September 23, Tinubu appealed against the ruling of Judge Jeffrey T. Gilbert, sitting at the United States’ District Court of Northern Illinois which ordered the Chicago State University (CSU) to release all relevant records pertaining to him to Nigeria’s former Vice President, Atiku.
