Atiku-Retained US Lobbying Firm Circulates Tinubu Forfeiture Records to Trump Administration and Congress
By Atlantic Digest National Desk | Friday 24 July, 2026
A Washington-based lobbying firm retained by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar says it has begun distributing United States Department of Justice records relating to a 1993 civil forfeiture case involving President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to officials in the Trump administration, members of the US Congress and senior congressional staff.
The firm, Von Batten-Montague-York, L.C., said it circulated more than 60 pages of official court and Justice Department documents because, in its view, many American policymakers were unfamiliar with the historical case and its background.
The documents relate to United States v. Funds in Account No. 263226700 et al., a civil forfeiture action filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois following a Department of Justice investigation into a suspected drug-trafficking network operating between Nigeria and the United States during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
It is important to note that President Tinubu was never charged with or convicted of any criminal offence in connection with the case. In 2023, Nigeria’s Presidential Election Petition Court rejected arguments advanced by Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi that the decades-old forfeiture proceedings rendered Tinubu ineligible for office, holding that no criminal conviction had been established against him.
According to reports, the lobbying firm was retained by Atiku Abubakar in March 2026 under a 12-month contract valued at approximately $1.2 million to provide advocacy, diplomatic engagement and strategic communications ahead of Nigeria’s 2027 general elections.
Presidential aides have previously dismissed the opposition’s lobbying efforts in Washington as politically motivated, insisting that the issues raised have already been addressed by Nigerian courts.
Former Kaduna Central Senator Shehu Sani also criticised the circulation of the documents abroad, describing the move as unpatriotic and potentially harmful to Nigeria’s international image.
The development comes only days after the Presidency publicised a cordial letter from US President Donald Trump praising President Tinubu’s leadership and reaffirming security cooperation between both countries, adding another dimension to the increasingly international character of Nigeria’s emerging 2027 political contest.
