…Challenges named legislators to approach US court
Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has faulted the approach adopted by the federal government in the handling of the allegations by the Head of Financial Crime Compliance of Binance, Mr Tigran Gambarya by simply dismissing it with a mere wave of hand by the minister of Information and National Orientation.
HURIWA therefore challenged the lawmakers named as allegedly demanding bribes by Gambarya to institute a defamation case in Nigeria and must be willing to present themselves in a court in the USA should Mr. Gambaryan file a suit there and are summoned by the US court.
HURIWA said its position is hinged on the insistence of Mr Tigran Gambaryan, Binance’s Head of Financial Crime Compliance, that the three Nigerian lawmakers demanded for $150 million bribe to prevent his arrest and prosecution in Nigeria for alleged financial crimes.
It noted that Mr. Gambaryan named Ginger Onwusibe, Philip Agbese and Peter Akpanke as the lawmakers that asked for the $150 million bribe from him by asking him to wire the funds to their cryptocurrency wallets.
HURIWA also noted that the accused lawmakers, namely; Onwusibe and Agbese had denied the allegation, and threatened to seek redress in court.
HURIWA further said that Gambaryan in a post on X on Saturday, said; “Many requested that I stay on and provide further commentary on the issues I posted about yesterday. Here’s the hard truth: what I shared was meant to fill in the gaps left by Wired and NPR’s reporting.
“The reality is that last year was incredibly painful for me and my family. I dedicated my life to fighting crime as a Special Agent with the United States Department of the Treasury and as a compliance profession. It was an honor to serve my country and it was a blessing that they came to my rescue and mobilized the full force of the U.S. government when I was in need.”
HURIWA in a statement by Emmanuel Onwubiko, its National coordinator, also noted that Gambaryan recalled the pain his family went through during his incarceration and being dragged through court on outrageous, baseless, and trumped-up charges which didn’t just hurt him, but also brought immense pain to his family.
According to HURIWA; “We acknowledge the obvious fact that the legislators named as demanding bribes by Mr. Gambaryan have strenuously denied their involvement in the bribery scam and we don’t have contrary evidence for now to doubt them.
“But, what the federal government should have done is to empanel an independent investigative body within Nigeria to expeditiously probe the disturbing allegations and make their findings known to the public instead of the Information and National Orientations minister simply addressing a media statement and debunking the allegations”.
The Rights group stressed that the heavyweight and the potential extensive damage to Nigeria’s global image by the allegations made by Gambaryan in a social media platform, should have been confronted forensically by the Nigerian government instead of adopting the defensive tactics of dismissing those allegations.
HURIWA further said; “Mr. Gambaryan made allegations narrating that his meeting with the legislators was made to look like it was recorded but alleged that it wasn’t recorded. What we expected the House of Representatives to do is to debunk the allegations by displaying for the viewing pleasure of Nigerians on both public and private televisions, any sort of video recordings of their meeting with Mr. Gambaryan in Nigeria.
“That way, such weighty evidence would totally stop Mr. Gambaryan from insisting on publicising his allegations against the Nigerian legislators. We are demanding that the House of Representatives should counter these allegations using video evidence of the sittings held by the House committee or subcommittee and Mr. Gambaryan.
“Now that Mr. Gambaryan has repeated his allegations against the Nigerian officials, we call on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to order an independent investigation into the allegations. Then the legislators and other officials accused of demanding bribes should immediately sue Mr. Gambaryan in a Nigerian court for defamation but should be willing too to appear physically in a court in the USA if invited by the US judiciary,” it said.
