A Washington-based lobbying firm retained by former Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar has alleged that the Nigerian Presidency, through one of its ambassadors, threatened on X (formerly Twitter) to kidnap and harm its principal, Dr. Karl Von Batten.
In a statement posted Sunday, Von Batten said he was “awakened this morning and shockingly informed” of the threat from the government of President Bola Tinubu.
His firm, Von Batten-Montague-York, L.C., hired by Atiku under a reported $1.2 million annual contract said it is treating the matter seriously and will contact U.S. federal law enforcement.
“As President Trump bravely showed us, when you stand up to evil, they will come after your life,” Von Batten wrote.
“To the Nigerian Presidency, I am not afraid of you or your kidnappers or assassins. And if, by some chance, you are able to harm me, my ‘only regret would be that I have but one life to lose for my country."
The firm connected the alleged threat to its campaign of sharing historical U.S. Department of Justice records with the Trump administration and members of Congress.
Those documents relate to a 1993 civil forfeiture case in which funds linked to accounts associated with Tinubu were connected by prosecutors to an investigation of heroin trafficking from Nigeria into the United States in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Tinubu has denied any wrongdoing; the case involved civil forfeiture of approximately $460,000 and did not result in a criminal conviction.
Von Batten stated that the firm “will never regret working to ensure that President Trump and Congress were informed” of the allegations and vowed to continue pressing the issue, citing the toll of drug overdoses on Americans.
A related post from the firm’s account said it possesses screenshots of the threats of “extrajudicial detention and physical harm” but would withhold further details until briefing U.S. officials.
No immediate response from the Nigerian Presidency or the referenced ambassador was available.
The dispute forms part of an intense lobbying contest in Washington ahead of Nigeria’s 2027 elections, with Atiku’s camp seeking to highlight the decades-old U.S. records while Tinubu’s government has dismissed them as resolved or irrelevant.
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