U.S. Court Rules CIA Can Refuse to Release Files on president Tinubu

U.S. Court Rules CIA Can Refuse to Release Files on president Tinubu

A U.S. federal court has ruled that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is legally allowed to withhold any documents related to Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, as there is no evidence to suggest that the agency ever collected intelligence on him.

 The decision, handed down by Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., on April 8, 2025, upheld the CIA's "Glomar response"—a legal strategy permitting the agency to neither confirm nor deny the existence of records in response to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.

This case was initiated by transparency advocate Aaron Greenspan, alongside Nigerian journalist David Hundeyin, who sought access to documents about Tinubu’s alleged connections to narcotics trafficking in the 1990s. 

Judge Howell concluded that the plaintiffs failed to provide sufficient evidence that the CIA had ever acknowledged possessing such records. As a result, the court ruled that the CIA should be excluded from the lawsuit.