.. Minister fires back
The political tempest surrounding President Bola Tinubu’s long-contested forfeiture records has developed another layer, as a Washington-based lobbying firm engaged by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has referred three high-ranking officials of the Tinubu’s administration to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
The referral, filed on September 5 with the FBI’s Washington Field Office, names Aviation Minister Festus Keyamo, alongside Presidential Aides Bayo Onanuga and Sunday Dare, as participants in what the firm describes as a “planned and coordinated” campaign of harassment and interference.
Von Batten-Montague-York, the lobbying entity contracted by Atiku under a $1.2 million annual Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) agreement, is not alleging that a federal crime has been committed.
Instead, it has asked the FBI to assess whether the Nigerian officials’ actions carry “counterintelligence, foreign-influence, transnational-repression, or other national-security significance” under US law.
The move escalates an ongoing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) dispute in a US District Court concerning the release of FBI and DEA records allegedly tied to Tinubu’s past.
The lobbying firm also flagged “reported contacts with the White House” regarding its managing partner’s appointment to a US presidential commission, hinting at a broader diplomatic undercurrent to the legal fight.
However, Keyamo has met the development with defiance. In a terse Sunday morning post on his official X account, the senior advocate dismissed the FBI referral as a “storm in a teacup” and a “journey to nowhere.”
His reaction came after development of the referral were widely publicized, effectively daring the US law enforcement agency to probe the matter while framing the complaint as a politically motivated distraction.
At the heart of the transatlantic legal wrangling is a FOIA lawsuit seeking the disclosure of sensitive US records concerning President Tinubu, which Atiku’s camp has previously sought to use as political ammunition.
Onanuga, for his part, had earlier characterised the FOIA case as a “civil records-disclosure dispute,” arguing that Von Batten is not even a direct party to the suit.
With the US election cycle looming and the Tinubu administration already under international scrutiny, this FBI referral marks the most aggressive move yet by Atiku’s foreign lobbyists, and a direct challenge to the Nigerian government’s ability to shield its top officials from foreign legal processes.
For now, the FBI has not issued any public statement on the referral, and the Tinubu Presidency is yet to formally respond to the allegations of harassment. But with Keyamo striking an unbothered tone, the Nigerian government appears to be betting that this legal gambit will indeed fizzle out—despite the symbolic weight of having its top officials named in a US federal referral.
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