Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has urged the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to release all records concerning President Bola Tinubu that can legally be made public.
Atiku, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, made the call while reacting to the FBI’s request to keep certain details contained in its records on Tinubu away from public view.
The FBI recently asked a United States District Court in Washington, DC, for permission to submit confidential explanations regarding why some records linked to its investigations could not be released publicly.
The agency argued that disclosing certain information could endanger individuals and compromise protected investigative interests.
However, Atiku rejected the position, insisting that information legally eligible for disclosure should not be withheld from the public.
In a statement issued on Saturday in Abuja by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, the former vice president said the FBI could protect sensitive information while releasing other records that are not legally exempt from disclosure.
Atiku said the identities of FBI agents and confidential sources, as well as legitimate investigative methods, could be protected through appropriate redactions.
“The FBI says disclosure could endanger lives. Which lives? Nigerians are already dying,” Atiku said, linking challenges in fuel, transportation, energy, food prices and employment to the daily struggles faced by Nigerians.
He urged the agency to protect its investigators, confidential sources and legitimate investigative methods but argued that such protections should not be extended to information that can lawfully be disclosed.
According to him, his demand was not aimed at interfering in Nigeria’s political affairs but was based on the principle that citizens should have access to information legitimately available about public officials who wield significant influence over their lives.
Atiku further argued that Nigerians were already bearing the consequences of what he described as bad governance, insisting that transparency remained essential.
“Protect your investigators. Protect your sources. Protect your methods. But do not protect the truth from Nigerians. Our people are already paying for bad governance with their lives,” he said.