Uwaifo Backs Atiku’s Push for U.S. Records on Tinubu, Says Nigerians Deserve Answers

President of the South-East, South-South Professionals of Nigeria, Hannibal Uwaifo, has thrown his weight behind former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s efforts to obtain long-standing United States government records relating to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Uwaifo, in an interview published on September 12, 2026, said the move was legitimate and in the public interest, particularly because the records being sought relate to the current President of Nigeria.

At the centre of the renewed controversy is a 1993 civil forfeiture case in the United States involving funds allegedly connected to Tinubu and two other individuals. The case, United States v. Funds in Account No. 263226700 et al., was filed before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, where the U.S. government sought the forfeiture of approximately $460,000.

The funds were alleged by U.S. authorities to have been connected to proceeds from a heroin trafficking operation involving Nigeria and Chicago during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

However, the civil forfeiture proceedings did not result in criminal convictions.

Uwaifo argued that the controversy surrounding the case has persisted for decades and that efforts to obtain further clarity should not automatically be dismissed because of their political implications.

“This issue has lingered for years, and President Tinubu has not addressed it. Whenever there was a chance to clarify things, he opted for legal maneuvers and hired lawyers. Thus, the issue remains unresolved. I see no problem with Atiku asking for these records under freedom of information laws so the public can be informed.”

According to Uwaifo, the central issue should be whether the documents being requested can legally be released under applicable U.S. transparency laws, rather than the political identity of the person seeking them.

He maintained that if records are legally accessible, their disclosure would give Nigerians an opportunity to examine the available evidence for themselves and draw their own conclusions.

The development comes as Atiku, who is now the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, steps up efforts to secure additional U.S. government documents relating to the decades-old case.

Reports indicate that Atiku’s Washington-based lobbying firm has been circulating more than 60 pages of previously obtained Department of Justice documents among officials in the Donald Trump administration and members of the United States Congress.

His team is also pursuing further records through Freedom of Information Act litigation involving U.S. agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Atiku has called on the FBI to release whatever records can legally be disclosed, arguing that Nigerians have a democratic right to scrutinise historical documents concerning the person occupying the country’s highest political office.

The renewed push has consequently reopened public debate over the 1993 forfeiture proceedings, the extent of records still held by U.S. authorities and the broader question of transparency surrounding the political history of Nigeria’s current president.

For Uwaifo, however, the issue should ultimately be settled through access to verifiable records rather than political arguments, with legally disclosable documents providing the public with the opportunity to assess the facts independently.