A United States lobbying firm retained by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar says it has submitted documents relating to President Bola Tinubu’s 1990s civil asset forfeiture case to officials in the administration of President Donald Trump and members of the U.S. Congress.
The firm, Von Batten-Montague-York, disclosed the development in a post on its official X account, stating that it is acting under a 12-month lobbying contract valued at $1.2 million with Atiku.
According to the firm, it has begun distributing more than 60 pages of U.S. Department of Justice documents following engagements with officials in the Trump administration, members of Congress and senior congressional staff.
The documents relate to a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Department of Justice investigation conducted in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The matter involved allegations linking Tinubu to a heroin trafficking network and a 1993 civil asset forfeiture case in Chicago.
In its statement, the firm said, “Many within the U.S. government were previously unaware of the DOJ’s allegations concerning Bola Tinubu. We are changing that.”
It added that the decision to brief U.S. officials was influenced by the impact of drug trafficking in the United States, describing it as a problem that has claimed thousands of lives and affected countless families.
For now, the firm said it has released only a chronology summarising the Department of Justice’s allegations, including the timeline of the investigation, court filings and the forfeiture judgment. It added that it intends to ensure the complete court filings, supporting affidavit and related federal court decisions are brought to President Trump’s attention.
The 1993 case involved the forfeiture of $460,000 from bank accounts linked to Tinubu while he was a private citizen in the United States. Tinubu was not criminally charged, and his representatives have consistently maintained that the matter was resolved through a civil settlement without any admission of wrongdoing.
The submission marks a renewed effort to draw international attention to decades-old U.S. court records as political activities ahead of Nigeria’s 2027 general election gather momentum.
There was no immediate response from the Presidency or the White House at the time of the firm’s announcement. However, President Tinubu’s media team has previously dismissed renewed references to the case as politically motivated.
The lobbying firm said it would continue pushing for wider circulation of the documents within the U.S. government, a move that could revive discussions around historical legal records and their implications for Nigeria-U.S. relations.