The Nigeria has issued a red notice to hunt down the Binance executive who has previously escaped the grasps of the Nigerian authorities.

While the world has been focusing all its attention on his colleague-Tigran Gambaryan-who has been tortured and later gained a glorious release from the Nigeria prison, Nadeem Amjarwalla thought the world, or at least Nigeria has already forgotten about him.

But now the Nigerian Information Minister Mohammed Indris is calling the Binance executive a fugitive who has unlawfully escaped the country. Minister Indris also called for the help of the Interpol to hunt Amjarwalla down and bring him back to Nigeria so he could face "justice."

The mysterious great escape

Anjarwalla, a British-Kenyan citizen and Binance's regional manager for Africa, was detained alongside U.S. citizen Tigran Gambaryan in February 2024. Both executives were in Nigeria to address allegations that Binance’s operations had contributed to the crash of the national currency, the naira.

But to their surprise, they were thrown into Nigerian jail and tortured by the local authorities. But Amjarwalla managed to pull a great escape, where he disappeared in what some would describe as mysterious circumstances.

But there are other reports who speculated that during his arrest, Anjarwalla only surrendered his British passport while secretly keeping his Kenyan passport. And this nifty trick proved to be his saving grace, as he used his Nigerian passport to seek asylum in Nigeria before local authorities could catch up with him.

Nigeria working with the Interpool to apprehend Anjarwalla

Minister Idris confirmed that Nigeria has enlisted Interpol’s assistance in locating Anjarwalla and securing his extradition.

“Nadeem Anjarwalla actually did escape lawful custody, and this is against our laws. Nigeria made a case with Interpol to apprehend him and bring him back to face justice.”

Meanwhile, Gambaryan’s case took a different turn. After being detained for eight months, Nigerian courts dropped charges against him on humanitarian grounds due to severe health issues including malaria, pneumonia, tonsillitis, and complications from a herniated disk that left him wheelchair-bound.

Just recently, Gambaryan was also lauded as a national hero and awarded the "hero award" by the United States Digital Chamber.

He said, she said...

Nigeria claims it has found incriminating evidence that kidnappers and terrorists have used Binance to handle illicit funds, and Binance has turned a blind eye to it. But Binance has long denied any wrongdoing or its executives did anything unlawful in Nigeria.

Binance CEO Richard Teng has also stepped forward to defend the exchange, stating that the Nigerian government's actions "were not warranted" and that Binance had attempted to cooperate, only to be met with resistance.

Responding to Teng's statement, Minister Idris had called these accusations tactics aimed at strongly arming the government, while throwing back the question at Binance and asking it why was it the only exchange that had received such persecution from the nation.

"There are other companies operating in the crypto sector in Nigeria, you don't see them facing charges."

He later adds that the Nigerian government just wants to protect their investors, and they are not out to attack anyone unpurposefully.