?Seek 90-day extension to release records

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) have said that their searches for investigative records on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu are still ongoing.

They hope to complete the process in 90 days and submit a joint report on or before July 31.

It was anticipated that the agencies would release the records today, May 2, 2025. as ordered.

A United States District Court for the District of Columbia ordered both agencies to release the records following a Freedom of Information (FoI) request by an American, Aaron Greenspan.

Judge Beryl Howell on April 8 ordered the FBI and DEA to release documents connected to a 1990s investigation of a drug case that allegedly involved President Tinubu and others.

The judge rejected the agencies? use of ?Glomar response??a legal provision allowing them to neither confirm nor deny the existence of certain records.

The court found the justification for the non-disclosure lacking in merit.

But, in a joint status report yesterday signed by Greenspan, U.S. Attorney Edward Martin, Jr. and assistant attorney M. Jared Littman, the parties stated that the report was not ready.

The joint status report proposes a schedule to govern further proceedings.

It reads: ?Pursuant to the court?s order?, the FBI and DEA have initiated their searches for responsive, non-exempt, reasonably segregable portions of records requested by plaintiff and anticipate completing their searches in ninety days.

?Based on the years-long delay already caused by defendants, and the fact that many responsive documents have already been identified, plaintiff proposes that the FBI and DEA complete their searches and productions by next week, or at least that the FBI and DEA produce unredacted versions of already-identified documents by next week, and the remainder of production in 14 days.

?Defendants provide no rationale whatsoever as to why their search for documents should take 90 days.

?Plaintiff intends to request his costs (the filing fee of $402.00 and $38.22 for Certified Mail postage, for a total of $440.22).

?Defendants propose that the parties submit a joint status report on or before July 31, 2025, to apprise the court as to the status of the case following the agencies? search for responsive, non-exempt, reasonably segregable portions of records requested by plaintiff.

?Plaintiff proposes that they submit a joint status report on or before May 31, 2025.?

The Presidency had clarified that the investigative records are not new.

Presidential Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, had said there would be nothing revealing in the 30-year-old report. (Adapted from a report by The Nation)

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