By Linus Aleke, Abuja
The Federal Government (FG) yesterday said that security agencies are working with Interpol for an international arrest warrant for the re-arrest of Binance executive, Mr Nadeem Anjarwalla, who escaped from lawful custody to an unknown destination on March 22, 2024.
The Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA), who announced this move in a statement in Abuja, noted that Nadeem Anjarwalla, a suspect in the ongoing criminal probe into the activities of Binance in Nigeria escaped from lawful custody on Friday, 22 March 2024.
In a statement yesterday by the spokesperson in the Office of the National Security Adviser, Zakari Mijinyawa, steps are being taken to ensure his re-arrest.
The statement said, “Upon receiving this report, this office took immediate steps, in conjunction with relevant security agencies, MDAs, as well as the international community, to apprehend the suspect. Security agencies are working with Interpol for an international arrest warrant on the suspect. Preliminary investigation shows that Mr Anjarwalla fled Nigeria using a smuggled passport.”
The spokesperson, however, disclosed that the personnel responsible for the custody of the suspect have been arrested, and a thorough investigation is ongoing to unravel the circumstances that led to his escape from lawful detention.
The statement recalled that the Federal Government of Nigeria, like other governments around the world, has been investigating money laundering and terrorism financing transactions perpetrated on the Binance currency exchange platform.
Mijinyawa said until his escape, Anjarwalla, who holds British and Kenyan nationalities and serves as Binance’s Africa regional manager, was being tried by Nigerian courts.
The suspect, he said, escaped while under a 14-day remand order by a court in Nigeria, revealing that he was scheduled to appear before the court again on 4 April 2024.
“We urge the Nigerian public and the international community to provide whatever information they have that can assist law enforcement agencies to apprehend the suspect,” the statement added.
It was earlier reported that a Federal High Court, in Abuja ordered Binance Holdings Limited to provide the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) with the comprehensive data or information of all persons from Nigeria trading on its platform.
Justice Emeka Nwite granted the interim order after ruling on the ex-parte motion moved by the EFCC’s lawyer, Ekele Iheanacho.
The applicant’s application dated and filed 29th February 2024, was granted as prayed.
Justice Nwite ordered, “An order of this honourable court is hereby made directing the operators of Binance to provide the commission without comprehensive data/information relating to all persons from Nigeria trading on its platform”.
The interim order was granted to enable the anti-graft agency to unravel the alleged money laundering and terrorism financing on Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange platform.
*It’s a disgrace he left through Nigerian airport– Amachree, ex-DSS director
A former Assistant Director of the Department of State Services (DSS), Dennis Amachree, says the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) is not a security agency with no detention facility and should have transferred fleeing Binance executive to the EFCC or the secret police for custody.
Amachree, who was a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme yesterday said the suspect and his colleague at the cryptocurrency exchange platform, Tigran Gambaryan, should have been watch-listed when they were detained in Abuja in late February.
The ex-DSS director said Anjarwalla and Gambaryan should have been placed on a watch list with the Nigeria Immigration Service with their photos and names flagged at all airports across the country.
Amachree said, “If the man has been flagged as a threat or a suspected person, he should have been watchlisted.
“I don’t know whether the NSA has a detention facility. The NSA is an advisory body to the President. So, if he (NSA Nuhu Ribadu) felt that the suspects should be remanded, he should have sent him to the EFCC or the DSS to keep until the date of the court but to keep him in a guest house where he has telephone access?
“For them now to allow him to go and pray? I think there are a lot of loopholes and lapses there. We have held heads of state in detention and they prayed where to live and eat and sleep. So, I don’t see why this particular guy will be allowed to go to the nearest mosque to pray and disappear.”
“There is a compromise,” the security expert said, stressing that the fleeing suspect must have rubbed hands with some conniving security agents.
“I’m happy they’ve arrested some of them. Let them interrogate them and tell us how much he gave them,” he said.
Nigeria is battling rising inflation, food inflation, forex crisis, economic hardship, and high cost of living occasioned by the removal of petrol subsidy, attracting protests in parts of the country.
The naira has seen a dip in the last nine months since President Bola Tinubu’s administration collapsed the foreign exchange window. The naira experienced an all-time low, falling from about N700/$1 last May to N1400/$1 at the moment.
The authorities have since turned their focus to cryptocurrency websites, accusing them of speculation, and clamping down on them through telecommunication companies.
In February, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Olayemi Cardoso, said $26bn in suspicious flows in the form of crypto exchanges passed through Binance.
The same month, Anjarwalla and Gambaryan were arrested in Nigeria and the government demanded about $10bn compensation from the cryptocurrency platform on allegations of manipulation of foreign exchange rates which has negatively affected the value of the naira against the dollar.
The crypto platform subsequently ended its naira services while the House of Representatives has resolved to investigate the national security implications of cryptocurrency, and other digital asset transactions.
Subsequently, the government approached the court to compel Binance to publish the names of its Nigerian traders but the platform won’t budge.
The government also filed tax evasion charges against the platform, just as the NSA office said Anjarwalla escaped from custody when he observed a Jumat prayer last Friday, March 22, 2024, in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
