President Bola Tinubu is leaving for Europe on a three-week vacation as part of his annual leave for the year 2026.

Presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga, who disclosed this in a statement on Sunday, said, “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will depart Abuja today for Europe to begin a three-week vacation as part of his annual leave.”

According to the statement, Mr Tinubu’s first stop would be London, United Kingdom.

The statement added that the president would “return home after the working vacation to join the hectic campaign for the January 2027 election.”

Mr Tinubu’s vacation in Europe came amid growing outcry over his alleged past drug dealings and relationship with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

The Peoples Gazette earlier reported that the FBI, on Friday, secretly submitted records of Mr Tinubu’s 1993 drug-trafficking and money-laundering case to Judge Howell Beryl of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, insisting the documents were for her eyes only.

The agency submitted the files to avoid disobeying a court order following years of foot-dragging on a Freedom of Information petition filed by Aaron Greenspan in 2023.

The U.S. law enforcement agency’s decision to submit the president’s criminal records came on the heels of the August 28 final ultimatum deadline set by Ms Beryl after she lost patience with the FBI for missing several deadlines.

 Earlier this week, the FBI claimed that submitting the records would violate Mr Tinubu’s privacy and argued that FOI was established to screen the operations and records of government institutions, not necessarily private individuals.  

Meanwhile, Mr Tinubu has consistently sought to block the release of his records, saying his rivals only want to use them to discredit him in a Nigerian presidential election.