The Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) has confirmed the arrest of its officials allegedly responsible for the escape of Nadeem Anjarwalla, the Binance regional manager for Africa.

A statement by Zakari Mijinyawa, head of strategic communication at ONSA, said preliminary investigation shows that Anjarwalla fled Nigeria using a “smuggled passport”.

“The personnel responsible for the custody of the suspect have been arrested, and a thorough investigation is ongoing to unravel the circumstances that led to his escape from lawful detention,” the statement reads.

“Recall that the Federal Government of Nigeria, like other governments around the world, has been investigating money laundering and terrorism financing transactions perpetrated on the Binance currency exchange platform.

Until his escape, Nadeem Anjarwalla, who holds British and Kenyan nationalities and serving as Binance’s Africa regional manager, was being tried by Nigerian courts. The suspect escaped while under a 14-day remand order by a court in Nigeria. He was scheduled to appear before the court again on 4 April 2024.

”We urge the Nigerian public and the international community to provide whatever information they have that can assist law enforcement agencies to apprehend the suspect.”

The court had said that Anjarwalla and his colleague, Tigran Gambaryan should remain in detention for at least two more weeks in Nigeria after appearing in court last week even though they had not been charged with a crime.

However, news broke on Monday morning that Anjarwalla had escaped from detention and fled the country.