The urgent release of President Bola Tinubu’s private documents gathered by US law enforcement has been refused by a United States District Court for the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C.The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and other American agencies were ordered to promptly give over documents that were scheduled for release by the end of October by transparency activist Aaron Greenspan.After Tinubu sent lawyers to oppose the release, claiming that it would violate his privacy and other legal rights, Greenspan filed the emergency request.
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He claimed that Tinubu was attempting to delay the documents’ release in order to prevent any impact the disclosures may have on the ongoing election dispute at the Nigerian Supreme Court.
However, in a decision on Monday, Judge Beryl Howell rejected the request for a hearing to mandate the records’ prompt release, stating that one was not required to decide the motion’s merits.
In her ruling, Judge Howell stated that Greenspan had not sufficiently demonstrated the need to safeguard Tinubu’s interests in order to support his desire for an urgent hearing on his application for the accelerated release of records.
She ruled: “Plaintiff has not made any representation to the court that the balance of equities tips in his favour or that the granting of his motion would further the public interest.
“Given that the FOIA request is for records that, if any exist, may be of a highly sensitive and private nature and that the subject of those documents, Bola A. Tinubu, has had no opportunity to protect his privacy interests in any such records, the balance of equities militates strongly in favour of denying this emergency motion.
“Plaintiff’s emergency motion for a hearing to compel immediate document production is denied. No hearing to determine the merits of this motion is necessary.”
The judge also approved President Tinubu’s request to allow his lawyer, Christopher Carmichael, to appear in the case.
However, she has yet to rule on the President’s motion to intervene in the matter.
Earlier, the U.S. Department of Justice, represented by Matthew Graves, had said the government would not be taking any position as to whether Tinubu should join the case or not.
“On behalf of the defendants, the undersigned counsel does not take a position as to whether the court should grant Bola Tinubu’s motion to intervene,” Graves said
