The FBI has rejected an application from an American, Jeffrey Guterman, a former American mental health counsellor, to release a file on Nigeria’s President-elect Bola Tinubu.
Guterman stated in a Friday tweet that his request was denied because “the existence of files on third-party individuals would neither be confirmed nor denied by the FBI due to unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.”
Remember that the retired mental health counsellor last month asked the FBI to divulge data about Tinubu’s $460,000 forfeiture for narcotics trafficking in the United States.
The FBI, however, informed Guterman that his request submission did not comply with their rules of service.
“See below a copy of the letter I received today from the @FBI regarding my Freedom of Information Act request for the FBI file on Bola Tinubu,” he wrote.
“My request was denied because the FBI stated that the existence of files on third-party individuals will not be confirmed or denied due to an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.”
“I found it interesting that in my online submission, I referred to Tinubu as “Bola Tinubu,” but the FBI referred to him as TINUBU, BOLA AHMED in their letter.” How might the FBI obtain access to the Ahmed portion of his name? Again, in my application, I did not include the Ahmed component of his name. Furthermore, the FBI maintains a file on Tinubu for his $460,000 forfeiture to the United States.
“The letter also states that if I received their response via regular mail (which I did), it was because my online submission did not comply with their terms of service.” According to the letter, my alternatives are to (1) email or phone their office with any queries, (2) administratively appeal their decision within 90 days of the date of their letter, and/or (3) seek dispute resolution through email.
“I will now think about my next course of action.”
