Omokri Reveals Tinubu’s Records That May Be Contained In FBI Files

Nigeria’s Ambassador-designate to Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua, Reno Omokri, has said records held by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on President Bola Tinubu could contain sensitive personal information, including biometric, biographical and financial details.

Omokri, however, stressed that the existence of an FBI file bearing Tinubu’s name should not automatically be interpreted as evidence that the President has a criminal record.

According to him, such records could contain information such as fingerprints, DNA, bank statements and other private details generated through routine background checks carried out by US authorities.

He explained that the FBI conducts background screening for the US Department of State and Department of Homeland Security, including checks involving visa applicants and foreign nationals.

‎In a post via his social media page, Omokri said such checks could result in the creation of extensive FBI records even where the person involved had not committed any crime.

He said the presence of an individual’s name in FBI databases could therefore generate hundreds of pages of records without those documents necessarily containing evidence of criminal activity.

Omokri’s comments came amid renewed controversy over records being sought from US government agencies in connection with Tinubu’s past.

He maintained that Nigerians should distinguish between an FBI file and a criminal record, arguing that the two are not necessarily the same.

He insisted that Tinubu has no criminal record in the United States, Nigeria or anywhere else.

Omokri also challenged reports suggesting that the FBI had released a criminal record on Tinubu to a US federal judge, describing such reports as misleading.

He said his position was based partly on his own investigation in the United States in 2022, when Tinubu was preparing for the 2023 presidential election.

According to Omokri, he travelled to Chicago between September 18 and 20, 2022, to independently investigate claims surrounding Tinubu’s records. He said his findings did not support claims that Tinubu had a criminal record.

Omokri also referred to correspondence he said took place between the US Embassy in Nigeria and the country’s then Inspector-General of Police, Tafa Balogun, in February 2003.

According to him, Balogun contacted the US Embassy to establish whether the FBI had any criminal records concerning Tinubu, who was then the Governor of Lagos State.

Omokri said the embassy responded the following day and gave what he described as an all clear regarding criminal records involving Tinubu.

He argued that the correspondence was consistent with the findings from his own investigation in Chicago nearly two decades later.

Omokri therefore urged Nigerians not to automatically assume that the records currently being discussed amount to evidence of criminal conduct.
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‎He also questioned whether private citizens would ordinarily want their non-criminal personal information, including sensitive financial and biometric data, released publicly or handed over to political opponents.

Naija News reports that the controversy intensified after President Bola Tinubu asked a United States federal court to block the release of records held by the US Department of Justice, FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) relating to investigations involving him.

The records are being sought by American transparency activist Aaron Greenspan, who filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against several US government agencies.

The case, identified as Greenspan v. Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys et al., is before the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

Greenspan is seeking records connected to historical investigations involving Tinubu, including FBI and DEA documents.

Reports on the case indicate that the materials being sought include the FBI’s master file on Tinubu, interview records and documents connected to a 1993 civil forfeiture proceeding involving about $460,000.

Tinubu’s lawyers have opposed the release of the unredacted records, arguing that doing so would violate his privacy rights under US law.

In a 16-page filing, his legal team argued that the fact that some information about Tinubu’s past had previously entered the public domain did not mean that his privacy rights over the contents of an entire investigative file had been extinguished.

The lawyers further argued that the FOIA process should not be used to expose private information merely because the person involved is a public figure or the President of Nigeria.

They also maintained that claims suggesting the records could reveal a secret criminal prosecution or an agreement by US authorities not to prosecute Tinubu were speculative and unsupported by established evidence.

However, the President’s decision to oppose the release of the records has drawn criticism from opposition political groups.

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) spokesperson, Bolaji Abdullahi, said Tinubu should support the release of the records if there was nothing incriminating in them.

Abdullahi questioned why the President was opposing the release of records relating to his past.

“Why is the President opposing the release of his past records? That is suspicious. The President should allow them (records) to be released to clear himself,” he said.

The ADC spokesperson argued that rather than resisting the release, Tinubu should allow the documents to become public and use them to settle questions surrounding his past once and for all.

Similarly, the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) National Publicity Secretary, Osa Director, called on Tinubu to allow the records to be released.

Director said Nigerians deserved to know the truth about the matter, arguing that the controversy had remained unresolved for more than two decades.

He maintained that the President should use the opportunity to clear the air rather than allow the issue to continue resurfacing.

Director also dismissed the argument that the demand for the release of the records was merely an opposition strategy, insisting that the issue had existed long before the current political contest.

He said Nigerians deserved clarity and that it would be in Tinubu’s interest to resolve the matter.