Atiku’s $1.2M Washington Lobbying Effort Exposed as Political Gamble, Presidency Claims

By Abdullahi Mukhtar Algasgaini

The Presidency has strongly refuted claims circulating in some media circles that suggest President Bola Tinubu is connected to ongoing U.S. legal proceedings, describing the reports as a desperate political maneuver funded by opposition figures seeking foreign validation ahead of the 2027 elections.

In a detailed statement issued Sunday, Dr. Sunday Dare, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Public Communications, characterized the coordinated media campaign as a “clinical demonstration of desperation” orchestrated by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s camp.

According to publicly verifiable filings with the U.S. Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), Atiku Abubakar contracted the Washington-based firm Von Batten-Montague-York, L.C. on a $1.2 million, 12-month retainer. The agreement’s explicit scope, Dare noted, is to execute a “targeted, partisan campaign” designed to “counterbalance” Nigerian government narratives and weaponize historical judicial archives for domestic political leverage.

The statement identified Dr. Karl-Marx Edward Okeke-Von Batten—a U.S.-based consultant of Nigerian origin who added the “Von Batten” surname following his marriage—as the commercial lobbyist behind what the Presidency termed “manufactured controversies.”

“Okeke-Von Batten must have conned a desperate Alhaji Abubakar Atiku into believing that he has access to everyone in the Trump administration, including President Trump himself, by falsely representing that he had reached out to President Trump to release the so-called FBI files,” Dare stated.

The Presidency emphasized that the case in question has been active since 2023, with the FBI’s primary concern being “the protection of the techniques by which it gathers information and the safety of its sources.”

“The report presents no intelligence document, no named Western official, and no evidence of any exchange involving Nigeria’s secrets or resources. It is nothing more than political speculation packaged as classified information,” Dare asserted.

Addressing what it termed “the recycled fixation on decades-old, settled U.S. legal filings,” the statement referenced recent public discourse where Wole Afolabi, SAN, appeared on Channels Television to clarify that actions taken by the legal team to withhold certain sections of FOIA requests align strictly with U.S. legal provisions designed to protect confidential investigative processes.

“If the president had been criminally liable under U.S. law during past investigations, American authorities would have indicted and prosecuted him at the time,” the statement quoted Afolabi as clarifying.

The Presidency also dismissed suggestions linking President Tinubu’s current European trip to U.S. legal proceedings, describing it as a “previously scheduled annual leave” with “absolutely no connection” to ongoing FOIA matters.

Dare concluded by challenging the opposition to present tangible evidence for their allegations, arguing that “true democratic validation is earned through the ballot box and tangible service delivery to the citizens at home, not through manufactured headlines bought and paid for in foreign currency.”

The statement emphasized that Nigerians are “no longer naive spectators easily swayed by rented international mouthpieces or imported falsehoods.”