By Osaretin Osadebamwen
A Washington-based lobbying firm hired by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar says it has submitted documents relating to a historic United States civil forfeiture case involving President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to officials in the Donald Trump administration and members of the US Congress.
The firm, Von Batten-Montague-York, L.C., said the records were drawn from documents previously released by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) concerning a 1993 civil forfeiture proceeding.
According to the lobbying company, the documents have also been shared with congressional staff as part of its advocacy engagement on issues affecting Nigeria-United States relations.
The firm was retained by Atiku Abubakar, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, under a 12-month lobbying agreement reportedly valued at $1.2 million.
Its assignment includes diplomatic engagement, policy advocacy and presenting Atiku’s perspectives on matters relating to Nigeria and the United States.
In a statement posted on X, the company said it had first held discussions with officials within the Trump administration and congressional offices before circulating the documents.
The firm disclosed that more than 60 pages of Department of Justice records and related court documents had been distributed for review.
According to the company, some US officials indicated they were previously unfamiliar with the historical forfeiture proceedings.
It said the documents were shared to ensure that the records were available to policymakers and congressional offices for reference.
The lobbying firm stated that the documents concern DOJ allegations linked to an investigation into suspected heroin trafficking activities spanning the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The material includes a chronology titled Background and Chronology of the 1993 U.S. Department of Justice Heroin-Proceeds Forfeiture Case and the 2023 FOIA Litigation Concerning Alleged Heroin Trafficking from Nigeria to the United States Involving Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
According to the chronology, the forfeiture proceedings arose from a federal investigation into a suspected drug trafficking organisation operating between Nigeria and the United States.
The documents referenced a case filed before the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois identified as United States v. Funds in Account No. 263226700 et al.
The records alleged that funds in several bank accounts represented proceeds of narcotics trafficking or were connected to money laundering activities.
The chronology identified Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Adegboyega Mueez Akande and Abiodun Agbele as individuals named in the government’s allegations.
According to the documents, investigators examined financial activities covering the period between 1988 and 1991.
The chronology further alleged that proceeds from the suspected trafficking network were deposited into bank accounts linked to Tinubu in the United States.
The records also stated that investigators alleged Tinubu controlled multiple accounts that contained funds connected to unlawful activities.
Akande was described in the documents as an associate allegedly connected to the organisation under investigation.
The chronology also referred to Agbele as an associate whom Tinubu said he knew through Akande.
According to the documents, the Department of Justice later instituted civil forfeiture proceedings in 1993 seeking the seizure of the identified funds.
The chronology stated that the matter ended in a civil settlement under which part of the funds was forfeited to the United States government.
The records also outlined later efforts to obtain additional documents relating to the historical investigation.
According to the chronology, journalist Aaron Greenspan initiated a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit in 2023 seeking access to records held by several US federal agencies.
The documents noted that a US District Court in Washington, DC, ruled in 2025 that some agencies could not rely on a blanket refusal to confirm or deny the existence of records and directed them to process parts of the FOIA request.
The lobbying firm stated that the FOIA litigation remains ongoing and said the documents were being shared with congressional committees for informational and oversight purposes because of Nigeria’s strategic relationship with the United States.
The issue was also raised during legal challenges to the outcome of Nigeria’s 2023 presidential election, when Atiku Abubakar and former Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi argued that the forfeiture proceedings affected Tinubu’s eligibility to contest the election.
However, the Presidential Election Petition Court rejected that argument, holding that the proceedings were civil rather than criminal in nature and that the petitioners failed to establish that Tinubu had been convicted of any criminal offence in the United States or had made a false declaration to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
