The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) informed a U.S. federal court that a former Chicago mobster connected to President Bola Tinubu has passed away.Â
This revelation was made during an ongoing freedom of information lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in Washington D.C.
The FBI disclosed this information on Wednesday but did not provide details about Lee Andrew Edwards’ cause or date of death.
The disclosure hinted at potential implications for the timeline of future revelations in the ongoing legal matter.
The announcement follows the government’s attempts to withhold information regarding Tinubu’s alleged involvement in an extensive drug operation in Chicago.
Previous documents indicated that Edwards, along with Tinubu, played a prominent role in a drug syndicate operating in the northwestern U.S. during the 1980s.
Investigators believed Tinubu held a leadership position within the syndicate during that period.
Despite the release of hundreds of pages related to Tinubu’s associates, including Edwards and Adegboyega Mueez Akande, the documents were heavily redacted, obscuring Tinubu’s name and role.
Aaron Greenspan, a public transparency activist involved in the freedom of information lawsuit alongside Nigerian journalist David Hundeyin, accused the FBI of downplaying the volume of records related to President Tinubu in its possession.
Greenspan argued that the FBI had not adequately searched for and represented the responsive records, urging the court to compel the FBI to promptly and thoroughly release records explicitly mentioning Tinubu’s name and role.
Pointing to a Chicago case file already in the public domain detailing how Tinubu forfeited over $460,000 in narcotics proceeds, Greenspan contended that the FBI’s files on Tinubu could no longer be kept concealed.
The joint-status report entered on December 5, 2023, highlighted the ongoing dispute between transparency advocates and federal authorities over the release of unredacted information regarding President Bola Tinubu’s alleged connections to the Chicago drug trade.
