FBI: Clear Your Name, Allow Records to Be Released for Nigerians to Judge, Lauretta Onochie Tells Tinubu
By KEMI KASUMU
“Everyone on earth, if your name is being rubbished, you are eager to clear your name so Nigerians will know that you are either clear or not. But if you keep sitting on the evidence and facts, Nigerians will now know that you are guilty as charged,” she said.
Former presidential aide and chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Lauretta Onochie, has urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to allow the release of records reportedly held by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) concerning an alleged investigation involving him, saying Nigerians should be allowed to examine the records and draw their own conclusions.
Onochie made the call while speaking in an exclusive interview with The DEFENDER Newspaper on Saturday, August 22, 2026, arguing that a national leader of Tinubu’s stature should be willing to make available any records concerning him so that his name could be cleared or otherwise.
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According to her, “If the FBI probe records of the Nigerian president are released, there will be no risk to anybody’s life. How can that be? How come that only the same Tinubu that releasing his academic records by Chicago State University became a threat capable of causing him ‘irreparable damages’ until that United States’ senior judge, a woman, talked back at the university, saying, ‘How can releasing your academic records cause you irreparable damages if truly you own them?’
“That was the question she asked, and then she ordered not only that the CSU release the academic records but also caused the school management to come before her court and do deposition of same, with a Certified True Copy (CTC) of that deposition now reportedly available to the beneficiaries of the judgement.”
Onochie further argued that anyone whose name is being publicly questioned would ordinarily want to clear his or her name by making relevant evidence available.
“Everyone on earth, if your name is being rubbished, you are eager to clear your name so Nigerians will know that you are either clear or not. But if you keep sitting on the evidence and facts, Nigerians will now know that you are guilty as charged,” she said.
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Reacting to what she described as a misinterpretation of reports that the FBI had asked a US court to keep the records confidential, Onochie said such a request should not be interpreted as a final decision by the court.
She said, “That the FBI told the court to let the records be kept confidential or secret does not mean the court said so. The FBI can say something to court, but the court has the final say because the FBI does not tell the court what to do.”
Asked about allegations that President Tinubu had allegedly influenced individuals within the FBI or the White House to prevent the release of the records, Onochie said such claims should be understood within the context of how the US system operates.
“You need to understand how the system works in the United States of America. Again, let me repeat that the FBI is not court and neither the agency nor even the presidency tells the court what to do, and so it is the court that has the final say about this case,” she said.
“As for the FBI, yes, the FBI is under the presidency of the United States, but it is also strictly an independent investigation agency that cannot be influenced by the president or anybody in the presidency.”
Onochie, however, expressed concern over what she described as the damage such allegations could cause to Nigeria’s image, particularly because Tinubu is seeking re-election.
“It is a stain on Nigeria that its president, in the person of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is having the kind of damaging allegation of this nature of an investigated narcotic criminal offence, and the president is not only unwilling to clear his name but also he is doing everything possible to block the revered American system’s effort to release those probe records for the Nigerians he leads as president to know the moral, integrity or otherwise status of their president, who is now seeking a re-election in their country,” she said.
