By Akinwale Kasali
Following the arrest of Binance Executive, Nadeem Anjarwalla in Kenya, the International Criminal Police Organisation, INTERPOL, has confirmed that efforts are underway to extradite the Binance’s regional manager for Africa to Nigeria for prosecution.
Garba Umar, Africa’s Vice President of the INTERPOL Executive Committee disclosed this in an interview with Channels Television on Tuesday. He stressed that he is not aware but what he can say is that the last destination he knows on record is that Anjarwalla fled Nigeria and has been arrested in Kenya.
Umar added that Interpol has contacted all countries where Anjarwalla was believed to have transited and “we got some certain information which is not possible to share on this platform.
“Rest assured, we located where he was, how he boarded, all information about him and how he landed. We have done that to make sure that he doesn’t escape justice,” he said.
Umar said that the Binance Executive will be returned to Nigeria to face trial once a red notice has been issued and circulated to concerned Countries.
He said, “Now, it is not only morally right but it is legally right for the country to get him apprehended, inform the requesting country that ‘the fugitive you are looking for has been apprehended and is in our custody. Can you come and take him over?
“This is the process. He may be in Kenya, he may be in hiding, he might have even left Kenya but because of the notices we have given, wherever he is, he will be smoked out,” he added.
It would be recalled Anjarwalla and Tigran Gambaryan, Binance’s head of financial crime compliance, were charged with tax evasion and money laundering by the federal government.
The duo were arrested and detained on February 28, before Anjarwalla escaped from a guest house in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city on March 22, where he and Tigran Gambaryan, his colleague, had been kept by the federal government.
Anjarwalla was said to have escaped after guards led him to a nearby mosque for prayers in the spirit of the Ramadan fast and escaped to Kenya where he was nabbed by the Kenyan Police.
