Fani-Kayode, Atiku’s US lobbyist clash over Tinubu’s 1993 forfeiture case

A dispute involving Nigeria’s ambassador-designate to South Africa, Femi Fani-Kayode, and a Washington-based lobbying firm working for former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has escalated over the firm’s campaign highlighting President Bola Tinubu’s 1993 United States civil forfeiture case.

Von Batten-Montague-York, L.C., led by Karl Von Batten, said it was taking remarks attributed to Fani-Kayode seriously after interpreting them as a threat against its founder.

In posts circulating on X on Sunday, Von Batten said he had been informed that Fani-Kayode had made comments concerning what could happen if he travelled to Nigeria. The lobbying firm characterised the remarks as threatening detention and physical harm and said it planned to contact relevant United States authorities.

Fani-Kayode’s remarks and the lobbying firm’s interpretation of them have generated competing reactions online. Supporters of Von Batten described the comments as threatening, while others argued that the wording had been misinterpreted and did not amount to a threat.

The latest confrontation is part of a broader political dispute over the lobbying firm’s activities on behalf of Atiku, the African Democratic Congress presidential candidate in Nigeria’s 2027 election.

According to TheCable, Atiku engaged Von Batten-Montague-York under a 12-month contract worth $1.2 million. A filing under the United States Foreign Agents Registration Act showed that the assignment included strengthening Atiku’s reputation in the US and countering narratives advanced by the Nigerian government.

Central to the dispute is a decades-old American civil forfeiture proceeding involving Tinubu.

The lobbying firm has been circulating records from that case to American officials. BusinessDay reported in July that the firm said it had begun forwarding more than 60 pages of US Department of Justice records and court documents concerning the proceeding to officials in the Trump administration, members of Congress and congressional staff.

The underlying case dates to 1993 and involved funds held in accounts linked to Tinubu.

Authentic US court records show that $460,000 associated with an account held in Tinubu’s name was forfeited to the United States government following a civil proceeding. The documents connected the forfeited funds to allegations involving narcotics proceeds and financial transactions covered by US money-laundering statutes.

However, the proceeding was a civil asset forfeiture case, not a criminal conviction of Tinubu for drug trafficking. AFP previously authenticated the court documents and reported that they did not show that Tinubu was indicted or convicted in the case.

That distinction has remained central to the political argument surrounding the records.

Atiku has repeatedly challenged the Presidency to explain the forfeiture rather than attack his Washington representatives. TheCable reported earlier this month that Atiku accused government officials of attempting to discredit Von Batten-Montague-York instead of addressing questions surrounding the historical proceeding.

Fani-Kayode, meanwhile, has strongly criticised Von Batten and rejected the lobbying firm’s portrayal of Tinubu.

In a September 8 article published by Premium Times, Fani-Kayode accused Von Batten of attempting to discredit the President and stressed that Tinubu had not been indicted or convicted of a crime in the United States. He also challenged the lobbyist to substantiate separate allegations concerning an alleged attempt to offer him $3 million to end his campaign against Tinubu.

Von Batten-Montague-York had earlier alleged that its founder received an unsolicited $3 million offer from a person it said was connected to Tinubu. The firm said it preserved the communications and intended to submit them to US authorities. No publicly cited evidence has independently established that the alleged offer came from Tinubu or his government.

The latest exchange has now shifted attention from the historical forfeiture records to the increasingly acrimonious confrontation between Fani-Kayode and Atiku’s lobbyists.

Von Batten said his firm would raise the alleged threat with US federal authorities. At the time of reporting, there was no public indication that an American law-enforcement agency had opened an investigation into the latest exchange.

The row comes as Nigeria approaches the 2027 presidential election, with Tinubu and Atiku among the candidates, giving the long-running dispute over the 1993 US records renewed political significance.