August 17, 2024
A Nigerian court issued an order to freeze close to $38 million of $50 million in cryptocurrency that authorities alleged was sent to support the protests in the country.
Nigeria has recently seen protests across the country against the rising cost of living in the most populous African nation.
Local news agencies reported that the Federal High Court in Abuja issued the order to freeze four wallets allegedly owned by organizers of the #EndBadGovernance protests at the request of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu told a meeting involving the Council of State convened by President Bola Tinubu that “the government was able to trace $50m to crypto wallets that were made as donations to the protests. They succeeded in blocking four of those wallets containing $38m,” the Punch reported.
Yet, a report by Peoples Gazette has it that the crypto address showed zero balance and had never been operated.
Nigerians have been protesting against the rising cost of living. The country’s currency, the naira, has been sinking against the dollar for more than a year. That’s contributed to driving inflation to a 28-year high of 33.2%.
Earlier this year, the Bank of Nigeria Governor Olayemi Cardoso said crypto exchange Binance had allowed $26 billion of funds to leave the country untraceable last year, hitting tax revenues.
So far, that has resulted in the detention of Tigran Gambaryan, a U.S. citizen and a Binance official, who had been invited to the country for talks about the dispute.
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