Tinubu’s FBI records not criminal…. they contain fingerprints, blood group – Reno Omokri

Reno Omokri, ambassador-designate to Mexico, has claimed that records of President Bola Tinubu held by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) do not indicate criminality.

Omokri spoke during the City Boy Movement (CBM) media one-on-one podcast with Otega Ogra, a senior special assistant to the president on digital and new media, and selected journalists.

The former presidential spokesperson said there is a difference between FBI criminal records and FBI records.

Omokri said FBI records could arise from several forms of contact with American institutions and should not automatically be perceived as evidence of a crime.

The ambassador-designate claimed that all US visa applicants have their records with the FBI, adding that all the presidential candidates also have records with the US agency.

“There is no criminal FBI record against President Bola Tinubu. There’s nothing like that,” he said.

“I’m going to say something which might probably shake the country. All of the candidates in this election have FBI records.

“A record is just a record. There’s a difference between a record and a criminal record.”

“The FBI has a mandate that if anybody applied for an American visa and background checks in the US, you have FBI records.

“There is a different between FBI records and FBI criminal records.”

Asked why Tinubu did not want the US agency to publish the records, Omokri said the FBI’s records contain details such as a person’s fingerprints, blood group, and eye scans.

“Your FBI record is not just a record of my name is Reno Omokri. Your FBI record is going to contain biometrics, meaning that your fingerprints, your eye scan,” he said.

“It’s going to contain details about your body. It’s going to contain details about your blood group. It’s going to contain details about your DNA — not in all cases. Details about your accounts and family.

“Who, here, will want that information out?”

Omokri said those demanding that Tinubu’s records be made public should be prepared to apply the same standard to themselves.

Omokri’s comments come in the wake of a court case in the US concerning the requests for FBI investigation records on Tinubu from 1992 to 1993.

THE CONTROVERSY

In August, Tinubu asked a US district court to reject a motion seeking the release of records relating to investigations allegedly involving him, arguing that the documents are protected by privacy provisions under US law.

Tinubu asked the court to deny Aaron Greenspan’s motion for summary judgement and allow the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to maintain redactions and withholdings in records already released.

Tinubu’s application came after the FBI filed a motionseeking to submit ex parte in camera declarations explaining why it withheld certain information from investigative records relating to allegations of drug trafficking involving Tinubu.

An ex parte in camera declaration is a written statement submitted by a party in a legal case solely for a judge’s review, without being made available to the opposing party or the public.

The FBI told the US district court in Columbia that it cannot publicly explain all the reasons it is withholding certain records, hence the need for an ex parte in camera declaration.

The court subsequently granted the FBI’s permission for the ex parte in camera declaration.

Greenspan, founder of PlainSite, had filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests seeking records concerning Tinubu, including the “entire FBI file” on the Nigerian president and FBI interview records from 1992 to 1993.

Greenspan filed 12 FOIA requests with six US federal agencies for investigative records concerning a Chicago heroin ring that operated in the early 1990s. Tinubu was among four individuals named in the requests.

Several agencies initially issued Glomar responses, saying they could neither confirm nor deny the existence of responsive records.

Tinubu forfeited $460,000 to the US government over allegations linked to heroin trafficking.

In April 2025, Beryl Howell, the trial judge, held that the FBI and DEA had failed to establish a sufficient privacy interest in keeping secret the fact that Tinubu had been the subject of a criminal investigation.

She ordered both agencies to search for and process non-exempt records, while sustaining the CIA’s Glomar response.(TheCable)