The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is to release information about President Bola Tinubu’s sojourn in the United States, in its database.
The decision was borne out of the need to comply with a freedom of information request first filed last year by Nigerian journalists, David Hundeyin, in collaboration with some anti-corruption agencies in the US.
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According to the Peoples Gazette, the secret service claimed to have over 2,500 documents relating to Tinubu in its database, which it planned to release in batches starting late October.
The online medium, citing a new court filing it claimed to have just obtained, stated that the FBI plans to release about 500 pages per month of information relating to Tinubu in its custody.
“FBI has identified a total of approximately 2500 pages potentially responsive to FOIA requests 1553430-00 and 1587544-000,” the US agency claimed in a status report docketed on September 11 at the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C.
It further added that, “FBI plans a processing schedule of 500 pages per month, with an initial release anticipated by the end of October 2023,” the Gazette stated.
The report described the decision of the US frontline law enforcement agency as “unexpected” on account of its “initial reluctance to turn over the documents in line with a freedom of information request first filed in 2022.
Aaron Greenspan, who runs PlainSite, a website that pushes anti-corruption and transparency in public service, filed the request in collaboration with journalist David Hundeyin.
The medium expressed the belief that the disclosure could clarify outstanding questions about “when Mr Tinubu entered the U.S., under which name he entered and all activities he has been involved in ever since.”