- Ex-DSS Top Shot Faults NSA For Keeping Binance Officials, Says They Are Not Security Agency
- NSA Should Have Transferred Them To EFCC’s Custody, Place Them On Watchlist
- Alleges Compromise, Connivance With Security Agents
- NSA Arrests Suspects In Connection With Anjarwalla’s Escape
The escape of Binance Holding Limited Africa Regional Manager, Nadeem Anjarwalla from the custody of the National Security Adviser (NSA) has been met with accusation and counter accusation from different quarters.
The Matrix reports that Nigerians woke up to the news on Monday, March 25, 2024 that Anjarwalla who had been in the NSA custody alongside his colleague, Tigran Gambaryan had escaped.
Binance had been having a running battle with the Nigerian government. In February, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Olayemi Cardoso, said $26bn 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.
READ ALSO: Fresh Troubles For Binance As FG Slams Tax Evasion Charges Against Crypto Company
Subsequently, the government approached the court to compel Binance to publish the names of its Nigerian traders but the platform refused to budge.
On Monday, March 25, 2024, the federal government filed tax evasion charges against the platform.
However, drama broke out when news filtered in from the NSA office that Anjarwalla had escaped from custody when he observed a Jumaat prayer last Friday, March 22, 2024, in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
The office of the NSA in a Monday statement by its spokesman Zakari Mijinyawa confirmed the escape.
“The Office of the National Security Adviser confirms that Nadeem Anjarwalla, a suspect in the ongoing criminal probe into the activities of Binance in Nigeria, has escaped from lawful custody on Friday, 22 March 2024,” the NSA Office said.
Upon receiving the report, the Office of the NSA took immediate steps, in conjunction with relevant security agencies, MDAs, as well as the international community, to apprehend the suspect.
“Preliminary investigation shows that Mr Anjarwalla fled Nigeria using a smuggled passport,” it said.
“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.”
Reacting to this, a former Assistant Director of the Department of State Services (DSS), Dennis Amachree, faulted the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) saying it is not a security agency with no detention facility and should have transfer the fleeing Binance executive to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) or the secret police for custody.
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Amachree, who was a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Monday, said the suspect and his colleague at the cryptocurrency exchange platform, Gambaryan, should have been watch-listed when they were detained in Abuja late February.
The ex-DSS director said Anjarwalla and Gambaryan should have been placed on watchlist 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 court date but to keep him in a guest house where he has access to telephone?
READ ALSO: NSA Confirms Escape Of Binance Executive Nadeem Anjarwalla From Custody
“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.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government said it has activated all operations including contacting Interpol to ensure the re-arrest of Anjarwalla.
