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‘It would be risky to release Binance executive from custody risky’, Nigerian govt says

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Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), believes admitting the detained executive of cryptocurrency firm, Binance Holdings Limited, Tigran Gambaryan, will be a big risk they are not willing to take.

The Commission which arraigned Gambaryan on Tuesday at the Federal High Court in Abuja, urged the presiding judge, Justice Emeka Nwite, to deny the bail application filed by Gambaryan and his legal team.

While presenting the agency’s position, the prosecuting counsel for the EFCC, Emeka Iheanacho, argued that it was too risky to admit the foreigner to bail following the experience with his co-defendant, Nadeem Anjarwalla, who escaped from the custody of the National Security Adviser (NSA) and fled to Kenya where he was rearrested by the Kenyan police last weekend.

“This court will be taking a grave risk to grant the defendant bail. This is also considering the fact that he has no attachment to any community in Nigeria,” Iheanacho said.

“The experience we have had with the man who escaped to Kenya while his United Kingdom passport is in Nigeria will certainly repeat itself if this defendant is granted bail.

“The 1st defendant (Binance) is operating virtually. The only thing we have to hold on to is this defendant. So, we pray My Lord to refuse bail to the defendant,” the EFCC prosecutor said.

Iheanacho further told the court that the agency had uncovered a plot hatched by Gambaryan to obtain a new passport to facilitate his escape from Nigeria after the EFCC had seized his passport within the same period that Anjarwalla fled the custody.

“There was an attempt by this defendant to procure another travelling document even when he was aware that his passport was in the custody of the state. He pretended as if the said passport was stolen.

“Because of the information we received, we ask that the defendant be kept in the EFCC custody so that he doesn’t escape. We will ensure that he is properly taken care of.

“Private inconvenience is preferable to public disgrace. My Lord, we urge this honourable court to refuse the bail request of the defendant and instead remand him in our detention facility.”

However, while Gambaryan’s bail application, his lawyer, Mark Mordi, said his continued detention was nothing but a purely state-sanctioned hostage taking as his client was being held by EFCC as a leverage to obtain information from his employer.

“He can’t go anywhere. The EFCC have his passport. Already, being here, unable to go meet his family, is enough torture.

“The proof of service does not contain one document that incriminates my client. I dare the prosecutor to bring it out for us to see.”

Mordi added the claim by the EFCC that his client was planning to escape from the country was a false and unreliable information based on hearsay and inadmissible evidence.

“The prosecution has not presented any credible evidence to establish why the defendant should not be granted bail,” he maintained, while praying the court to grant the defendant bail and stipulate conditions that would ensure his attendance at his trial.

After listening to presentations by both prosecutors, the Judge adjourned the case till May 17 for ruling.

Gambaryan and Binance Holdings Limited as well as Anjarwalla (in absentia), are being prosecuted by the EFCC on money laundering charges after they were accused by the anti-graft agency of concealing the source of the $35,400, 000 generated as revenue by Binance in Nigeria, knowing that the funds constituted proceeds of unlawful activity.

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Zambia: APP leader lampoons PF over pledge to reverse forfeited properties

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Leader of one of Zambia’s opposition parties, Advocates for People’s Prosperity (APP), Mwenye Musenge, has criticised the Patriotic Front (PF) over its promise to reverse forfeited properties if the party won the 2026 presidential election.

Musenge, who was reacting to a statement credited to the PF Member of Parliament (MP) for Lukashya Province, George Chisanga, described the PF’s promise as a betrayal, saying the declaration had exposed the party’s disregard for accountability and justice.

The APP leader, who spoke to Zambia Monitor in a telephone interview from Kitwe, expressed shock that Chisanga, a former Law Association of Zambia president, would endorse what he termed a “regressive agenda,” accusing the PF of prioritising the protection of corrupt individuals over the welfare of citizens.

“This declaration reveals the PF’s true intentions, returning to power not to serve Zambians, but to shield their corrupt network and restore stolen assets,” Musenge said.

He alleged that former President Edgar Lungu’s consistent calls to protect his family, who he claimed cannot explain their amassed wealth, further demonstrate the party’s self-serving mission.

Musenge further described the PF as “a political carcass animated by greed and nostalgia for its days of unchecked looting,” and accused its leaders of leaving Zambia impoverished while enriching themselves.

“Allowing them near power again would be akin to handing a butcher’s knife to a thief already drenched in the blood of the nation’s resources.

“The PF represents everything wrong with Zambian politics—a relic of the past clinging to survival through recycled lies and corrupt agendas,” he added.

Musenge went on to call for the party to be permanently eradicated, saying it had no vision, morality, or credibility to serve Zambians.

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Nigerian Senate confirms influx of terrorists from Mali, Burkina Faso into the country 

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The Nigerian Senate has raised the alarm over the influx of terrorists from Mali and Burkina Faso who operate in the name of Lakurawa, into Kebbi, Sokoto, Kaduna and Niger States in the northern parts of the country.

The Upper Chamber, which raised the alarm during plenary on Wednesday, called on the military to set up early warning mechanisms to forestall further incursions by terrorist groups as well as maintain presence and vigilance in the affected communities to halt the activities of the terror group from spreading further across the region.

The resolutions of the Senate were sequel to a motion titled, “Urgent need for the federal government to take stringent measures to stop the infiltration of a group of violent terrorists, known as Lakurawa, from entrenching themselves in some northwest states of Sokoto and Kebbi,” and was sponsored by the senator representing Kebbi North, Senator Yahaya Abdullahi, and co- sponsored by Senators Adamu Aliero, from Kebbi Central, and Garba Musa Maidoki, representing Kebbi South.

While presenting the motion, Senator Abdullahi said:

“The Senate is aware that a group of terrorists from neighbouring Burkina Faso and Mali, known as Lakurawa, has infiltrated the country through the Nigeria-Niger border, at Illela, Tangaza and Silame Local Government Areas of Sokoto and are from there, attacking communities in Augie and Arewa LGAs in Kebbi State.

“Recall that this violent gang of terrorists had raided and dispossessed these communities, prior to the large-scale invasion of Mera, a village in Augie Local Government, on November 8, 2024, killing more than 20 people and fleeing with their livestock, amounting to hundreds of millions of naira.

“Senate is aware that Kebbi State government promptly responded by sending a delegation with relief materials to the affected villages and assistance to the families of the deceased.

“Aware that Senator Yahaya A. Abdullahi (Kebbi North) and Senator Adamu Aliero (Kebbi North Central) and Senator Garba Musa Maidoki (Kebbi South), along with some members of the House of Representatives from Kebbi State, have been to those areas, to commiserate with victims of the attacks on behalf of the National Assembly.

“Aware that if timely, adequate and decisive measures are not taken, this group can spread its reign of terror to other northern parts of the country and beyond.

“Notes the prompt response of the ministry of defence and the armed forces who despatched a well-armed military response squad that was able to dislodge the terrorists and secured the release of herds of cattle and other livestock stolen by the terrorists. These foreigners have invaded the country.

“We need to nip the situation in the bud, they have international connections, heavily armed with very dangerous weapons, the federal government should take the matter very seriously.

‘These terrorists are well armed with highly sophisticated weapons, this is a very serious matter on national security, they control the whole of Northern Mali and now attacking Kebbi, Sokoto, Kaduna, Niger, and others. The time to act is now, we have to take action on how to tame terrorism.”

He said the Senate should revisit past resolutions on terrorism and send them to the Presidency for immediate action.

”I want us to recall what happened in the 8th and 9th Senates. We discussed extensively how we can stem the tide of banditry and terrorism. We made far-reaching recommendations, and we asked the Executive arm of government to implement those resolutions.

“It is still relevant for us to insist that those resolutions should be implemented, if we do so, it will reduce the incidences of banditry and insurgency in the country. We can reduce it to the barest minimum.”

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