A United States-based political advisory and lobbying firm, Von Batten-Montague-York, has said President Bola Tinubu will not be arrested over allegations of involvement in heroin trafficking if he attends the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.
The firm, however, claimed that the Nigerian President could face public embarrassment during the UNGA, while also insisting that a planned meeting between Tinubu and US President Donald Trump would not take place.
In a statement posted on its verified X handle on Saturday, the firm said there was no plan to arrest Tinubu if he travels to New York for the UN General Assembly.
“There is no plan to arrest Nigerian President Bola Tinubu over his alleged involvement in heroin smuggling if he attends the UN General Assembly this month. Any claim to the contrary is untrue. What is true is that President Tinubu will be embarrassed in New York,” the firm stated.
Von Batten-Montague-York further claimed that Tinubu’s efforts to secure a meeting with Trump on the sidelines of the UNGA would not succeed, arguing that an individual it describes as an alleged heroin trafficker should not meet the US president.
The firm also repeated allegations concerning Tinubu’s activities in the United States during the 1980s and 1990s, claiming that he was linked to a criminal organisation involved in heroin smuggling from Nigeria into the US.
“We will continue to ensure that the White House and Congress fully understand that Nigerian President Tinubu is an alleged heroin trafficker and a liability to President Trump and the United States,” the firm said.
The allegations remain contested. Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC) have denied wrongdoing, while fact-checking of the US legal records has found that the existence of law-enforcement records or an investigation does not, by itself, establish that Tinubu committed heroin trafficking or was convicted of the offence.
The latest statement by the lobbying firm therefore centres on what it says could happen politically and publicly if Tinubu attends the UNGA, rather than on any confirmed plan by US authorities to arrest the Nigerian President.
