An international dragnet coordinats by INTERPOL has been activated to arrest Binance staff Nadeem Anjarwalla .
Anjarwalla, one of the detained executives of the global cryptocurrency firm Binance, escaped lawful custody on Friday.
The Office of the National Security Adviser disclosed that Anjarwalla, a key figure in the investigation into Binance’s activities in Nigeria, utilized a Kenyan passport to flee, while his associate remained detained.
The fugitive Binance official, holding British and Kenyan citizenships, departed from Abuja via a Middle East-bound airliner. Binance’s Nigerian branch confirmed Anjarwalla’s departure from the country and pledged cooperation with security agencies.
Security agencies were taken aback by the escape, revealing that Anjarwalla had been housed in a secure location guarded by soldiers. They also disclosed that the security personnel responsible for guarding him had been detained.
The Office of the National Security Adviser confirmed the escape of Anjarwalla in a statement issued in Abuja on Monday by the Head of its Strategic Communication, Zakari Mijinyawa, who stated that preliminary investigation showed that the escapee fled Nigeria using a smuggled international passport.
He noted that efforts were ongoing to arrest the suspect.
The statement read, “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, March 22, 2024.
“Upon receiving this report, this office took immediate steps, in conjunction with relevant security agencies, Ministries, Departments, and Agencies, 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.”
Mijinyawa noted that the personnel responsible for the custody of Anjarwalla had been arrested, adding that investigations were ongoing to unravel the circumstances surrounding his escape.
Personnel arrested
“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.
“Recall 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.
“Until his escape, Nadeem Anjarwalla, who holds British and Kenyan nationalities and served as Binance’s Africa Regional Manager, was being tried by Nigerian courts.
“The suspect escaped while under a 14-day remand order by a court in Nigeria. He was scheduled to appear before the court again on April 4, 2024,” the statement added.
The ONSA spokesperson urged Nigerians and the international community to help with information that could lead to the arrest of the suspect.
Mijinyawa said, “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.”
Financial Times had on February 28, 2024, reported that two executives of the company were arrested and detained after they flew into the country as a result of a ban on their website.
On March 12, 2024, the FT reported that the EFCC asked Binance to share data on its 100 top users in Nigeria as well as all transaction history for the past six months.
According to the report, the request is at the centre of negotiations between Binance and Nigeria.
Kenyan passport
The escaped Binance executive fled Nigeria on his smuggled Kenyan passport.
Anjarwalla’s escape from custody last Friday steered controversy across the country since the news broke Monday morning.
The embattled Binance executive who is both a citizen of the United Kingdom and Kenya, had had his British passport seized by the Nigerian authorities.
However, in an exclusive interview with our correspondent on Monday night, the spokesperson for the Office of the NSA, Mijinyawa, revealed that Anjarwalla fled the country using his Kenyan passport.
Responding to an enquiry on the particular country’s passport used by Anjarwalla to escape from Nigeria, Mijinwaya said, “Kenyan. His other passport remains with the Nigerian authorities.”
Meanwhile, impeccable sources told one of our correspondents that Anjarwalla and his colleague, Tigran Gambaryan, were detained in a “safe house” guarded by heavily armed soldiers.
It was further revealed that the embattled crypto-currency gurus were detained on the order of the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu.
The high-placed security sources disclosed in confidence that some of the military personnel guarding the safe house had been detained.
“The escape of Mr Anjarwalla from custody came as a surprise to many of us in the security community. He wasn’t detained by the EFCC or the DSS, he and his colleague were detained in a ‘safe house’ guarded by heavily armed soldiers of the Nigerian Army, on the order of the NSA, Nuhu Ribadu,” one of the sources revealed.
Another source who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, said, “the soldiers who were on duty on the day he escaped have been detained and are being interrogated over the matter.
“The Office of the National Security Adviser is the one coordinating the poet, while other relevant security agencies, the EFCC, DSS, police, FIRS, are carrying out their own independent investigations and have been questioning the Binance executives at the ‘safe house’ which is being guarded by the military.”
However, the Nigerian Immigrations Service and the Nigeria Police Force were silent on the development.
