A Washington lobbying firm says it has been authorised to file a $36 million federal lawsuit against Nigerian President Bola Tinubu and Nigeria’s High Commissioner to South Africa, Femi Fani-Kayode, over alleged threats to kidnap and harm its managing partner.
Von Batten-Montague-York, L.C. said on Wednesday that the action would be brought in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. The firm said the claim arose from threats it attributes to Mr Fani-Kayode and described those threats as part of an organised criminal conspiracy involving the Nigerian Presidency. The complaint has not yet been filed. The firm said it intended to file next week.
The firm said the case against Mr Tinubu would test the limits of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act and head of state immunity while he remains in office. It said the pleading would rely on District of Columbia tort law, the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act and the Anti-Terrorism Act, including 28 U.S.C. section 1605B and 18 U.S.C. sections 2331 and 2333. The firm said section 1605B concerns specified international terrorism claims against foreign states, while section 2333 provides a civil remedy to United States nationals who meet its statutory tests. Those statutes have not yet been tested against the facts of this dispute in court.
After filing, the firm said it would contact immigration authorities in the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union about the alleged threats and about whether Mr Fani-Kayode’s travel or visa status should be reviewed. It cited United States terrorism related grounds of inadmissibility and visa revocation. It added that any decision would rest with the relevant authorities.
The latest statement follows earlier posts in which the same firm accused Mr Fani-Kayode of threatening to kidnap and physically harm Dr Karl Von Batten, and said it had begun briefing the United States Department of State and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Nigerian news outlets reported those allegations on 22 September. The firm linked the dispute to its campaign for the release of historical United States records concerning a 1993 civil forfeiture case that named Mr Tinubu among others.
Mr Fani-Kayode has rejected the kidnapping claim. In a commentary published on 22 September he said nobody was interested in killing or kidnapping Dr Von Batten. He said the firm’s so called evidence was a post he had made on X on 20 September, denied any plot to abduct or kill him, and described the allegation as a product of imagination. He has separately accused the firm of circulating false material about Mr Tinubu and has argued that the 1993 United States case was a civil action against property, not a criminal finding that the president personally trafficked heroin. The Nigerian Presidency has also said the related Washington records case is a civil disclosure dispute, not a criminal prosecution.
Von Batten-Montague-York is a Washington policy and lobbying firm retained by former Nigerian vice president Atiku Abubakar under a reported twelve month contract worth $1.2 million. Filings and contemporaneous reporting say the brief included strengthening Mr Abubakar’s standing in the United States and countering narratives associated with the Nigerian government. The firm has circulated Department of Justice records from the 1993 forfeiture litigation and has pressed for further disclosure of Federal Bureau of Investigation and Drug Enforcement Administration files. Mr Tinubu has not been convicted of a drug trafficking offence in the United States. The 1993 proceeding was a civil forfeiture action over funds, not a criminal verdict against him personally.
Lawyers not involved in the matter note that suing a sitting foreign head of state in a United States court is legally difficult. Head of state immunity and the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act generally bar such claims unless a statutory exception applies. The firm’s reliance on terrorism statutes would require it to prove the elements of those laws, not merely allege them. Whether a federal court will accept service, find jurisdiction or allow the case to proceed remains unknown until a complaint is filed and the defendants respond.
Neither the Nigerian Presidency nor Mr Fani-Kayode had issued a detailed public reply to the $36 million figure by Wednesday evening. The allegations of threats, conspiracy and terrorism related liability remain contested and unproven.
By John James
