May 8, (THEWILL)- The House of Representatives has adopted a motion seeking an investigation into the circumstances that led to the escape of Nadeem Anjarwalla, one of the detained Binance Executives from lawful custody in Nigeria.
The motion of urgent national importance moved by Dennis Okafor, was adopted during plenary on Wednesday.
THEWILL had reported that Anjarwalla escaped on Friday, March 22, 2024, from the Abuja guest house, where he and his colleague, Tigran Gambaryan, a US citizen, overseeing financial crime compliance at the crypto exchange platform, were detained after guards on duty led him to a nearby mosque for prayers in the spirit of the ongoing Ramadan fast.
Okafor, in his prayers, on Wednesday, asked the relevant committees of the House to investigate and prosecute those responsible for the escape of the Binance executive from detention.
THEWILL reports that the probe is coming less than 24 hours after Richard Teng, Chief Executive Officer of Binance, in a statement published on its website on Tuesday, alleged that some unknown persons in Nigeria demanded huge payments in digital currency “to make their problems in the country go away”.
The company had pointed out that its representatives were approached after leaving a meeting with the House Committee on Financial Crimes.
“…as our employees were leaving the venue, they were approached by unknown persons, who suggested to them to make a payment in settlement of the allegations. Later that day, our local counsel — representing us at that time — was summoned by the Committee through someone purporting to be their agent, who relayed the Committee’s terms and instructed our local counsel to advise us.
“Counsel reported back that he had been presented with a demand for a significant payment in cryptocurrency to be paid in secret within 48 hours to make these issues go away and that our decision was expected by the morning. Our team grew increasingly concerned about their safety in Nigeria and immediately departed. We, of course, declined the payment demand via our counsel not viewing it to be a legitimate settlement offer…”, Teng claimed in a statement on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the lawmakers on Wednesday dismissed the claim that some “unidentified” officials in Nigeria demanded bribes from the Binance Group.
Citing a breach of privilege, Okafor asked the House to re-invite the company to ascertain the bribe claims.
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