By Stephen Simon
A United States-based political advisory and lobbying firm, Von Batten-Montague-York, has accused the administration of President Bola Tinubu of misrepresenting facts surrounding a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case involving records concerning the Nigerian president.
The firm made the allegation in a statement published on its verified X account on Friday, following a statement issued by the Nigerian Presidency a day earlier.
The Presidency had described the ongoing case before a United States federal court as a civil dispute over the disclosure of records, insisting that it was not a criminal proceeding.
Reacting to the clarification, Von Batten-Montague-York said the Presidency’s statement had prompted it to take further steps in the legal proceedings.
The firm said it was preparing to seek permission from the US District Court for the District of Columbia to submit an amicus curiae brief addressing President Tinubu’s claim to privacy over the records.
According to the firm, it had notified the plaintiff, Aaron Greenspan, the US Department of Justice (DOJ), and lawyers representing Tinubu in accordance with the court’s rules.
It said it was waiting for responses from the parties before proceeding with the application.
The firm argued that although the Presidency’s public statement did not, by itself, remove Tinubu’s privacy protections, the administration’s decision to publicly discuss the records and the ongoing litigation could weaken the president’s claim to privacy under Exemption 7(C) of the US Freedom of Information Act.
Von Batten-Montague-York further alleged that the Presidency had publicly contradicted information contained in records held by US law enforcement agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), as well as court documents.
The firm maintained that the Nigerian government could not simultaneously rely on privacy protections before a US court while publicly discussing the same records and disputing their contents.
It said the circumstances could have significant implications for the weight attached to Tinubu’s privacy claim in the US court proceedings.
The dispute centres on efforts to obtain records relating to President Tinubu through the US FOIA process, with the Presidency maintaining that the case is strictly a civil records-disclosure matter and does not amount to a criminal case against the Nigerian leader.
