Indications have emerged that the House of Representatives would issue an arrest warrant against Mr Richard Teng and other officials of Binance Holdings Limited over alleged involvement in terrorism financing, money laundering and other financial crimes in the country.
The decision to consider the issuance of arrest warrant against officials of Binance Holding Limited followed the adoption of a motion moved by Mr Isa Dogonyaro during the proceedings of the House committee on financial crimes held on Monday at the National Assembly complex in Abuja.
The Chairman of the House Committee on Financial Crimes, Mr Ginger Onwusibe, explained that the matter would be tabled before Speaker Tajudeen Abbas at plenary session.
Onwusibe, who did not specify when the House would take a final stand on the issue, rejected an effort by a lawyer, Senator Ihenyen, to represent Binance during the proceedings of the committee.
Dogonyaro (APC: Jigawa), who frowned on the absence of Binance Holding Limited officials to clear the air on the level of their involvement in the alleged infractions, stressed the need for the House of Representatives to invoke the powers conferred on it by the constitution.
“We are seeing the same representation that we had the last time. I am not sure their officials are in custody. It’s better the committee report back to the House to subpoena Binance Holding Limited officials. We are already dragging our feet on this matter. Let’s do the proper thing,” he said.
Onwusibe, particularly, accused Binance Holding of exploiting over 20 million Nigerians within the last six years in breach of the extant provision of the law.
Ihenyen had urged members of the committee to give his client another opportunity to appear in person since he had sent in a correspondence in line with the request of the committee.
Ihenyen blamed the arrest of key officials of Binance Holding Limited by the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) as reason for their inability to appear before the committee in person.
