Biden Holds 30-Minute Discussion With Tinubu on Phone

President Bola Tinubu and United States President Joe Biden spoke on the phone over the release of  Tigran Gambaryan, Binance’s head of finance crime compliance.

Yusuf Tuggar, minister of foreign affairs, said the 30-minute phone call on Tuesday evening was against the backdrop of the release of Gambaryan on October 23.

In April, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arraigned Binance, a cryptocurrency firm, and Gambaryan, on allegations of money laundering.

Gambaryan was in detention for eight months.

At a court hearing on October 23, the EFCC announced the decision of the federal government to withdraw the charges against Gambaryan.

Tuggar said Biden was grateful for Gambaryan’s release.

“The two leaders exchanged pleasantries and President Biden preceded to thank President Tinubu for his partnership and for Nigeria’s partnership in particular the collaboration between the two countries with regards to our law enforcement and law enforcement agencies as well as release of one of the suspects of the cryptocurrency exchange company (Binance),” the minister said.

Tuggar emphasised that the legal hurdles in the case were only as a result of Nigeria “following due process and abiding by the rule of law”.

“President Tinubu during the discussion even mentioned the similarities of the fact that our system of government is very similar to the United States system of government,” he said.

“We adopted our own system of government having gone back to civilian constitution and democracy in 1999 by adopting a US-styled system of government.

“So the rule of law is very important which is why we these processes which the two leaders both assured that they will continue to collaborate in that regard.”

Tuggar said both countries committed to sharing intelligence, applying technology, supplying equipment, and kinetic and non-kinetic training.