Binance executive, Tigran Gambaryan, has asked the Federal High Court in Abuja to award “costs” against the Office of the National Security Adviser and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission over his prolonged detention in Nigeria.
Gambaryan’s lawyer, Tonye Krukrubo SAN, announced the suit before the court on Wednesday, June 19, 2024, with reference FHC/ABJ/CS/356/2024, dated May 8, 2024.
The lawyer proposed to amend the originating motion for the enforcement of Gambaryan’s fundamental rights.
Gambaryan had previously filed a fundamental rights suit, asking Justice Inyang Ekwo to compel the NSA and the EFCC to apologize for his detention. He alleged that the Federal Government was using his detention “as leverage to continue making demands on Binance.”
After hearing the case, Justice Ekwo overruled the EFCC counsel and directed Gambaryan’s lawyer to serve the amended motion on the respondents within two days.
The judge stated, “The motion on notice by the applicant for amendment of his originating process dated May 8, 2024, is moved. The learned counsel for the respondents has adopted his counter affidavit in opposition to the application for amendment. I have studied the averments thereof and I am of the opinion that I ought to overrule the opposition to this amendment because, by law, parties are entitled to amend their processes even before judgment. I am minded therefore to grant the application for amendment.”
The case was adjourned to July 9 for a full hearing on the amended motion and any other applications. Additionally, the judge ordered the applicant to pay the respondents ₦50,000 for the costs of the processes they filed in the initial fundamental rights suit.
Krukrubo explained that Gambaryan, an American citizen, visited Nigeria on February 26, 2024, with Nadeem Anjarwalla to honor an invitation by Mr. Saad Abubakar of the NSA and Mr. Olalekan Ogunjobi of the EFCC for a meeting with government officials as representatives of Binance. However, after the meeting, Gambaryan, who is not a board member of Binance, was detained and not released.
Gambaryan’s lawyer urged the court to declare his detention and the seizure of his international travel passport as a violation of his fundamental right to personal liberty guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution. He also asked that Nigeria’s security agencies be restrained from further detaining Gambaryan in connection with any investigation into or demands from Binance.
In the proposed amended originating motion, Krukrubo sought “the costs of this action on a full indemnity basis,” in addition to other reliefs contained in the initial suit.
He emphasized, “The unlawful detention of the applicant (Gambaryan) by the respondents from February 26, 2024, to 27 February 2024 (period of detention pre-remand order) and from 12 March 2024 to 8 April 2024 (period of detention post expiry of the remand order, until arraignment) has caused immense hardship and emotional stress on the Applicant, his wife, and children and other members of his family.”
