The House of Representatives has denied demanding a bribe from a popular cryptocurrency platform, Binance.
On February 28, the federal government detained two top executives of Binance as part of a probe bordering on illegal operations in the country and foreign exchange rate manipulations.
The detained executives included Nadeem Anjarwalla, a 37-year-old British-Kenyan and Binance’s regional manager for Africa; and Tigran Gambaryan, a 39-year-old US citizen and Binance’s head of financial crime compliance.
In a blog post on Tuesday, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Binance, Richard Teng, claimed that some Nigerian government officials demanded huge payments in digital currency to make their “problems in the country go away”.
During a plenary session on Wednesday, Hon Kama Nkemkanma (APC-Ebonyi state) stated that the house never met with Binance, and no bribe has ever been demanded.
The lawmaker, who raised a point of privilege, stated that the Green Chamber can never allow itself to be talked down.
He stated the allegation is capable of “bringing the house into disrepute” and should “never be taken lightly”.
Ruling on the point of privilege, the Speaker of the House, Tajudeen Abbas, said the lower chamber refuted any allegation of bribery raised by the Binance boss.
He said: “We need to use whatever media available to us to refute this allegation.
“Nothing like that has ever happened. No committee of the house has ever engaged this man.”
“There were a number of reasons for that, including the sensitivity of the information and getting the opportunity to see the allegations in full and prepare a thorough substantive response,” he said.