The Washington-based firm says it is distributing historical US court and Justice Department documents for informational and oversight purposes.
A Washington-based lobbying firm retained by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has disclosed that it has begun circulating documents relating to a decades-old United States civil forfeiture case involving President Bola Tinubu to officials in the Donald Trump administration and members of the US Congress.
The lobbying firm, Von Batten-Montague-York, L.C., said the documents include records from the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) concerning a 1993 civil forfeiture case linked to funds that US authorities alleged were connected to narcotics-related activities.
The firm was engaged by Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), under a 12-month lobbying agreement reportedly valued at $1.2 million. The contract covers diplomatic engagement, policy advocacy and efforts to present Atiku’s positions on issues affecting Nigeria-United States relations.
In a statement posted on its official X account, the firm said it had held meetings with officials within the US executive branch, members of Congress and senior congressional staff before distributing more than 60 pages of DOJ documents and related court records.
According to the firm, some officials were unfamiliar with the historical case, prompting the decision to provide the documents for review.
The materials include a chronology outlining the 1993 Department of Justice civil forfeiture proceedings and subsequent Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation initiated in 2023 to obtain records connected to the case.
According to the chronology, the forfeiture action arose from a federal investigation into a suspected drug trafficking network that allegedly operated between Nigeria and the United States during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The records reference a civil case filed before the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, identified as United States v. Funds in Account No. 263226700 et al. The US government alleged that funds in several bank accounts represented proceeds of narcotics trafficking or were connected to money laundering activities.
The documents identify Bola Tinubu, Adegboyega Mueez Akande and Abiodun Agbele as individuals mentioned in the government’s allegations.
According to the chronology, investigators examined financial transactions between 1988 and 1991 and alleged that proceeds from the suspected trafficking operation were deposited into US bank accounts associated with Tinubu. The DOJ also alleged that Tinubu controlled multiple accounts into which some of the disputed funds were deposited.
The records further describe Akande as an associate allegedly connected to the organisation under investigation, while Agbele was identified as someone Tinubu acknowledged knowing through Akande.
The Department of Justice subsequently filed a civil forfeiture action in 1993 seeking the seizure of the funds. The matter was later resolved through a civil settlement under which part of the funds was forfeited to the United States government.
The documents also highlight the ongoing efforts by journalist Aaron Greenspan to obtain records relating to the investigation through the Freedom of Information Act. Greenspan filed suit against several US federal agencies in 2023 after seeking access to documents connected to the historical case.
According to the chronology, a US District Court in Washington, D.C., ruled in 2025 that some federal agencies could not rely on blanket refusals to confirm or deny the existence of responsive records and directed them to process portions of the FOIA request in accordance with applicable law.
Von Batten-Montague-York said the FOIA litigation remains ongoing and that the documents are being shared with congressional offices and committees for informational and oversight purposes, citing Nigeria’s strategic importance to the United States.
The 1993 forfeiture case was also raised during legal proceedings challenging the outcome of Nigeria’s 2023 presidential election.
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi argued before the Presidential Election Petition Court that the forfeiture proceedings affected Tinubu’s constitutional qualification to contest the election.
The Presidential Election Petition Court rejected the argument, ruling that the petitioners failed to establish that Tinubu had been convicted of any criminal offence in the United States. The court also held that the forfeiture proceedings were civil, rather than criminal, in nature and found no evidence that Tinubu made a false declaration to the Independent National Electoral Commission regarding the matter.
