This US-based policy advisory and lobbying firm is not resting at all. They’ve come up with yet another bang. They seem hellbent on finishing President Bola Tinubu ahead of 2027 presidential election.
Yesterday, it posted on X handle that it’s founder Von Batten was invited to a secret meeting in London with “unsolicited offer of $3-million” bribe “from a highly placed individual whom we have been informed is connected to Nigerian President Bola Tinubu”.
Von Batten-Montague-York, which is linked to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, said it rejected the bribe. It then preserved copies of the communication with the intermediary which would be submitted to United States Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for review, the firm said.
“A few days ago, Dr. Von Batten received unsolicited offers of $3 million, along with an invitation to a confidential meeting in London, from a highly placed individual whom we have been informed is connected to Nigerian President Bola Tinubu.
Furthermore, the firm directly address the president’s men in the concluding part of the X post.
It stated: “We have a simple message for President Bola Tinubu, the APC, and their associates: Thank you for the offer, but no thanks.”
The US firm has also been on the receiving end of attacks. On Sunday, Special Adviser to President Tinubu on Media and Public Communications, Sunday Dare, accused Von Batten of lying that he was a US “Senior Government Advisor. Dare was reacting to wider controversy when he said that, and he also said there were no record to show the firm was speaking neither for President Donald Trump nor for the US Government.
“The self-bestowed appellation of ‘Senior Government Advisor’ is a linguistic sleight of hand,” Dare said, added that Von Batten’s claims of offer of bribe is “nothing more than political speculation packaged as classified information”.
Dare further alleged that the lobbying firm was out simply for money, citing what he said were publicly verifiable filings under the United States Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) which showed that Atiku contracted Von Batten-Montague-York, L.C. on a $1.2 million, 12-month retainer.
However, all the claims remain largely unverified. Dare’s allegation that Atiku paid Von Batten-Montague-York for the purpose of 2027 elections lacks proof, and so are the allegations of the $3-million bribe and Tinubu’s heroin trafficking records.