The Nigerian government is demanding at least $10 billion as retribution from Binance amid crackdown on the crypto exchange platform in desperate moves to salvage the value of the nation’s local currency.
Bayo Onanuga, special adviser on information and strategy to President Bola Tinubu, made this known Friday morning in an interview with the BBC.
Binance profited substantially from its “illegal transactions” in Nigeria while the nation suffered huge losses, Mr Onanuga said during the interview, monitored by PREMIUM TIMES
It was earlier reported that the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) confirmed that the crypto exchange platform is being investigated by the Nigerian authorities.
In its first official confirmation of the clampdown efforts on the activities of Binance and other crypto platforms, a top official of the ONSA confirmed to Newsmen that the security adviser’s office is coordinating an interagency investigation into the operations of Binance.
“I am confirming that the office of the national security adviser, as part of ongoing operations in the foreign exchange market with the CBN and other law enforcement and security agencies, is coordinating an interagency investigation into the operations of Binance,” Zakari Mijinyawa, head of Strategic Communication at the Office of the National Security Adviser, told PREMIUM TIMES after multiple requests for comment Thursday.
On Wednesday, it was reported how the government detained two executives of the crypto exchange platform amid desperate efforts to stabilise the nation’s foreign exchange market.
Sources with details of the matter told Newsmen that the two executives were detained in Abuja, the federal capital territory, days after they flew into the country as part of moves to negotiate with the Nigerian authorities amid crackdown on the crypto platform.
They had arrived in Nigeria earlier in the week to negotiate with the government amid the crackdown. However, the meetings were deadlocked as Binance officials declined to meet some of the demands put forward by the Nigerian government.
They were also accused of operating a business worth billions without the requisite registrations and documentation.
According to sources who spoke with Newsmen Wednesday evening, the Nigerian authorities requested Binance executives to provide data relating to transactions involving the Nigerian Naira on the Binance platform in the last seven years. They also demanded that some other data relating to Nigeria be deleted from the Binance platform.
However, the Binance executives insisted that they should be taken to their respective countries’ embassies before they could comply.
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