A Federal High Court, Abuja, on Friday dismissed a bail application filed by the detained Binance executive, Tigran Gambaryan.

Justice Emeka Nwite, in a ruling, held that based on the affidavit evidence before him, Gambaryan would jump bail if the application was granted.

“I have carefully considered the affidavit evidence before me and I am of the view that the applicant will jump bail if granted bail,” Justice Nwite declared.

However, the judge ordered an accelerated hearing in the trial.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Justice Nwite had, on April 23, fixed today for the ruling after counsel for the EFCC, Ekele Iheanacho, and Gambaryan’s lawyer, Mark Mordi, SAN, adopted their processes and argued their case against and for the bail plea.

Justice Nwite had ordered the remand of Gambaryan in Kuje Correctional Centre after he pleaded not guilty to the money laundering charges preferred against him by the EFCC.

The EFCC had accused Binance Holdings Limited, Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla, another agent of the company, of allegedly conspiring amongst themselves to conceal the origin of the financial proceeds of their alleged unlawful activities in Nigeria including $35,400, 000.

They were alleged to have committed an offence contrary to Section 21 (a) and punishable under Section 18(3) of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, among others.

However, Anjarwalla escaped from lawful custody on March 22 and fled Nigeria for Kenya. Mordi, on Gambaryan’s behalf, had filed an application seeking an order of the court, to release his client on bail pending the hearing and determination of the substantive case.

Mordi, in the last adjourned date, had argued that the EFCC had failed to produce any credible evidence to oppose his application. According to him, the complainant’s allegation that Gambaryan was arranging to escape from custody like his colleague was false.

“There is no exhibit or document displaying EFCC’s credible intelligence. But EFCC’s lawyer disagreed with Mordi.”

Iheanacho argued that the court would have taken a grave risk by granting the Binance agent bail because he had no attachment to any community in Nigeria or competent person to stand as his surety. He contended that Gambaryan attempted to apply for a new United States passport while in detention knowing fully well his International passport was seized by the Nigerian state.

The lawyer said he was a flight risk and that if granted bail, he would jump bail like his colleague. He disagreed with Mordi that the commission had not provided credible evidence that Gambaryan was planning to escape.

He said going by the deposition in their counter affidavit, the deponent was one of the investigative teams that investigated the case. He urged the court to dismiss the bail application.

In the alternative, he advised the court to return the applicant to EFCC custody if the judge decided to grant him bail.

The International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR) has kicked against an invitation by the Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre (NPF-NCCC) over alleged cyberstalking and defamation of character.

In a statement on Thursday, the ICIR said the police invited Nurudeen Akewushola, a journalist, and the managing director of the organisation for an interview over “cyberstalking and defamation of character” claims.

The media organisation said the invitation letter, dated April 16, 2024, was delivered to its office on May 15—three weeks later.

The ICIR highlighted the irregularities in the invitation, noting that the date for the interview, which was April 24, had already passed.

The organisation added that the invitation lacks details about the alleged crime, hindering its ability to prepare a proper defence.

“The Police did not provide any details of the petition leading to its investigation on “cyberstalking and defamation of character,” which would have enabled the centre and its reporter to prepare for an interview,” the statement reads.

“The invitation was received by the ICIR on Wednesday, May 15, whereas the reporter and directors were expected to have reported to the centre on April 24, several weeks before the invitation was received.

“The ICIR is also concerned about the invitation because of an emerging trend of harassment and crackdown on journalists in Nigeria by the nation’s security apparatus using the Cyber Crimes Act, a legislation that has been amended to make it impossible for it to be misused in harassing the media and civic actors, as has been done in the past.

“In the past weeks, at least two journalists went missing from their homes, only to be discovered later that they were arrested by the nation’s security agencies for cyberstalking.

“The ICIR is also concerned about the invitation because it has reasonable cause to believe it is related to an investigative report done by Nurudeen Akewushola, the reporter who has been invited to the Cybercrime Centre, and recently published by the ICIR.

“The report indicted two former Inspectors General of Police of corruption. One of the two former IGPs threatened the ICIR with a lawsuit and was rebuffed.

“We believe that the same person is now using the Police, which should be interested in holding him to account based on our reporting, to harass our reporter.

“As a law-abiding organisation that holds power to account, we are always willing to submit to accountability and would honour lawful invitations from law enforcement agencies but we have written to the Police to provide details of the petition against the ICIR and its reporter and write a new invitation letter before we honour the invitation.”

The Chairman of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa is back on Twitter almost a year after her account was hacked.

The broadcast journalist-turned-politician announced her return to the social media platform on Thursday, May 16, 2024.

It would be recalled that on June 15, 2023, the NiDCOM chairman informed Nigerians that her X account formerly known as Twitter, had been “hacked by some unscrupulous elements.”

She said the “obvious aim of the hackers is to spread falsehood and fake news in her name.”

In a statement by Abdur-Rahman Balogun, the commission’s Head of Media, Public Relations, and Protocols Unit, Dabiri-Erewa advised Nigerians to disregard any message from the account.

“Members of the public are hereby advised to ignore any message from the Twitter handle @Abike Dabiri-Erewa until normalcy is hopefully restored,” the statement read in part.

Announcing her return in a short video showing numerous award plaques, the three-term member of the House of Representatives said she looks forward to meaningful engagement on the social media platform.

Guess who's back on Twitter? After a long hiatus, I'm thrilled to reconnect! pic.twitter.com/0XozjFDuMt

— abikedabiri (@abikedabiri) May 16, 2024

She said, “Hi everyone, Abike-Dabiri-Erewa here. I’m back on Twitter. After my account was hacked, I did my very best to get my account back. I mean, it’s not easy to lose over a million followers, but hey, that’s life but I’m back on X. I am looking forward to meaningful engagements on the X platform. It’s nice to be back.”

Meanwhile, Dabiri-Erewa’s hacked account is still active on X. The account which is being used to propagate Islamic content has over 800,000 followers.