Festus Keyamo Photo Festus Keyamo’s Facebook
By Our Reporter
Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, SAN, has dismissed a referral by US lobbying firm Von Batten-Montague-York to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) over alleged harassment by Nigerian officials.
Keyamo, in a post on his X account on Sunday, described the development as a “storm in a teacup; journey to nowhere.”
His reaction came hours after SaharaReporters reported that Von Batten-Montague-York, a Washington lobbying firm retained by African Democratic Congress presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar, had accused Keyamo and two senior aides to President Bola Tinubu of mounting a “planned and coordinated” campaign against its managing partner, Dr Karl Von Batten.
The firm said it had referred the matter to the FBI’s Washington Field Office for assessment.
In documents accompanying a post on X, the firm named Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President Sunday Dare and Keyamo as participants in what it described as efforts to disrupt its “First Amendment-protected US advocacy and petitioning activities” over the disclosure of FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) records concerning Tinubu’s alleged drug-trafficking past.
The firm said the referral, dated September 5, was styled as an “Information Referral Concerning Potential Foreign-Government Harassment, Interference, and Transnational Repression.”
Von Batten asked the FBI to assess whether the alleged conduct by Nigerian officials had any “counterintelligence, foreign-influence, transnational-repression, harassment, interference, or other national-security significance under United States law.
However, the firm stated that it was not alleging that a federal crime had been committed.
It also said the referral would cover “reported contacts with the White House” regarding Von Batten’s appointment to a US presidential commission.
The development followed a September 3 statement by Onanuga on the ongoing US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case involving records concerning Tinubu.
Onanuga had described the case as “a civil records-disclosure dispute” rather than a criminal matter and said Von Batten was not a party to the suit.
Von Batten-Montague-York is retained by Atiku under a Foreign Agents Registration Act contract reportedly worth $1.2 million annually.
The lobbying firm also filed a supplemental submission in a US District Court for the District of Columbia in connection with the FOIA litigation.
Keyamo has now dismissed the latest development as a “storm in a teacup” and a “journey to nowhere.”
