A recent filing in a United States federal court has alleged that the Nigerian government pays $750,000 monthly to DCI Group AZ, LLC, an affiliate associated with US public affairs firm DCI Group. The claim appears in a filing submitted by American transparency activist Aaron Greenspan in his Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against US government agencies. Greenspan's lawsuit seeks records relating to an alleged federal investigation in the early 1990s involving President Bola Tinubu and Abiodun Agbele.
Greenspan filed a request for judicial notice on October 8, 2026, in support of his motion for permission to pursue limited discovery involving Tinubu, who intervened in the case in October 2023. The filing describes the relationship between DCI Group AZ and the Nigerian government, citing the monthly payment of $750,000. The filing also alleges that an account managed by the DCI affiliate published an attack post about Greenspan on August 5, 2026.
The proposed discovery is intended to obtain information relevant to Greenspan's claims. However, the filing does not establish that the Nigerian government directed or financed the alleged online attack, or that the monthly payment was connected to it. Greenspan is seeking documents relating to himself, the case, and attacks on his website. The filing mentions that federal prosecutors have alleged that DCI Group engaged Israeli contractors to hack electronic accounts belonging to targets of a project for the lobbying firm's client.
The US Department of Justice, one defendant's counsel, and two national news organizations have identified DCI Group as the firm involved. The filing asks the court to take judicial notice of the existence and contents of public records attached as exhibits. A separate one-page document submitted with the filing is labelled a proposed order, but it contains no date or judicial signature.
Tinubu intervened in the lawsuit in October 2023, citing privacy interests in confidential tax records and federal law-enforcement documents. In April 2025, US District Judge Beryl A. Howell ruled that the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration could not maintain their blanket refusals to confirm or deny whether responsive records existed. The judge upheld the CIA's refusal to confirm or deny the existence of records.
Greenspan had asked a federal court in Washington for permission to put four questions to Tinubu over a series of denial-of-service attacks on his website, PlainSite. In a reply filed on September 28, Greenspan said Tinubu had not denied that he, his government, or anyone acting on his behalf, including DCI Group AZ, was involved in the attacks. However, the filings do not allege that Tinubu or DCI Group carried out the attacks, and they contain no evidence identifying who was responsible.
Greenspan challenges Tinubu's claim of no independent verification of the alleged attacks, pointing to a mitigation report generated on May 29, 2025, by PlainSite's internet service provider. The report recorded traffic of 941.9 megabits per second and 1.8 million packets per second at PlainSite's protected address. Greenspan said the attacks resumed after he filed his motion on September 9, with the number of individual addresses blocked by PlainSite's firewall rising sharply around September 18.
Key points
- The Nigerian government pays $750,000 monthly to DCI Group AZ, LLC, a US lobbying firm associated with President Bola Tinubu.
- The court filing is part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against US government agencies over records relating to an alleged federal investigation in the early 1990s involving Tinubu and Abiodun Agbele.
- The proposed discovery seeks information relevant to Greenspan's claims, including documents relating to himself, the case, and attacks on his website.
