The Nigerian government has reportedly frozen more than $37 million worth of cryptocurrency held in wallets said to be owned by some organisers of the recent #EndBadGovernance protests.
BREAKING: #EndBadGovernance Protests Will Resume On October 1 Or Earlier And No Stoppage This Time Till Demands Are Met — Nigerians Warned Tinubu. pic.twitter.com/PeW9LFdjjQ
— Peter Obi Grassroots Mobilization. (@PO_GrassRootM) August 11, 2024
According to local news outlets, the freezing followed an order by the Federal High Court in Abuja after an application by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
In the ex parte application filed on August 8 2024, and heard by the court on the following day, the EFCC described the assets as proceeds of money laundering and terrorism financing.
“That an order of this honourable court is hereby made freezing the wallet addresses/accounts stated in the schedule below, which wallets are owned by individuals currently being investigated for offences of money laundering and terrorism financing, pending the conclusion of the investigation,” Mr Nwite ruled shortly after listening to the EFCC’s lawyer.
An affidavit filed in support of the application for the court order to freeze the cryptocurrency wallets said the assets ‘are owned by individuals currently being investigated for offences of money laundering and terrorism financing.’
The affidavit was sworn to by an EFCC official, Jimada Yusuf. However, EFCC did not reveal the identities of the wallet owners in its application.
The wallets with the lion’s share of the assets have:
- 37,061,867,869.3 USDT ($37 million )
- 444,512.37 USDT
- 967 USDT
- 90 USDT
The anti-government protests against:
- Rising costs of living
- Economic hardship faced by millions of Nigerians, and
- General governance issues in Nigeria
were held across many parts of the country from August 1 to August 10 2024.
This is not the Nigerian government’s first time taking such measures against protest organisers.
In 2020, during the #EndSARS protests, the government blocked accounts linked to the campaigners claiming the funds might be connected to terrorist activities.
As reported by BitKE at that time, about 10 BTC was raised in support of the #EndSARS campaign with the crypto donations spearheaded by The Feminist Coalition.
[TECH] Bitcoin Donations Are Among the Most Popular Payment Modes for Supporting The Nigerian #ENDSARS Campaign: The ongoing #ENDSARS protests, with the help of Feminist Coalition, has so far raised a substa.. https://t.co/NluIc4Weas via @BitcoinKE
— Top Kenyan Blogs (@Blogs_Kenya) October 23, 2020
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) reportedly froze 20 accounts and sought a court order to help freeze the accounts for an extended period of 90 days.
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