A Washington, D.C.-based Republican policy advisory and lobbying firm, Von Batten-Montague-York, L.C., has escalated a long-running controversy over historical allegations linking President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to a heroin trafficking investigation, bringing the matter directly to members of the United States Congress.
The firm said it had begun engaging lawmakers and senior congressional staff over records connected to a Freedom of Information Act case involving the allegations, as attention continues to mount around previously undisclosed U.S. law-enforcement records.
According to the firm, its outreach began after members of Congress and senior congressional aides returned to Washington, with the lobbyists moving quickly to brief congressional contacts on the case.
The development comes amid renewed scrutiny of a U.S. investigation dating to the late 1980s and early 1990s, as well as a 1993 civil forfeiture involving about $460,000 that Tinubu surrendered to U.S. authorities.
The allegations have resurfaced in recent months as efforts continue to obtain additional records from U.S. agencies through litigation under the Freedom of Information Act.
Tinubu has denied wrongdoing and has not been convicted of drug trafficking in the United States. The ongoing legal proceedings concern access to historical law-enforcement records and do not, by themselves, establish criminal wrongdoing by the Nigerian president.
The lobbying firm’s latest move places the decades-old controversy before U.S. policymakers at a time when questions over the records, their significance and their potential implications for Nigeria-U.S. relations are receiving renewed attention.
