Nadeem Anjarwalla, a Binance executive, escaped from jail, and Mike Ejiofor, a former director of the Department of State Services (DSS), blamed carelessness and compromise.
Recall that the Federal Government has been looking into purported transactions on the Binance currency exchange platform involving money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
In order to achieve this, Anjarwalla—who is the regional manager for Africa for Binance and is dual-national with Kenya and the United Kingdom—was being prosecuted by the Nigerian government prior to his escape while under a 14-day remand order imposed by a court.
Ejiofor called Anjarwalla’s escape a national disgrace to Nigeria.
The former Deputy Director of the DSS questioned the National Security Advisor’s (NSA) decision to hold the suspect in custody during an appearance on Arise Television.
“Really, this is a national, if not international, embarrassment for our own image as a country,” claims Ejiofor. It brings up a number of issues. Why was he in the care of the NSA when the EFCC, who was prosecuting the executives, was the appropriate agency to handle his case?
Is there a place where the NSA can house suspects? Really, a lot of questions. I have thus concluded that there is either compromise or egregious negligence on the part of the policemen who are on duty.
However, it is probably a compromise issue. Normally, someone under detention shouldn’t have entered the room carrying so many items. When you’re in custody, you get basic comforts. So how did they get entry to the mosque so they could go worship now? Someone who is being held? In what location was he kept? A great deal of questions remain unanswered.
Now, the reason I suggested that the issue of compromise is more likely is because, had he left to pray and vanished, the guards should have called in to say that we are having trouble finding him since he is not able to simply leave custody and head straight to the airport.
Therefore, during the time that he managed to flee and make his escape known to authorities, he must have gone home to pack his belongings and perhaps obtain a second passport that they were unaware of. As a result, compromise is more likely than carelessness.