Hon. Philip Agbese has vowed to resign from the House of Representatives if the allegations of bribery against him by the head of financial crime of crypto firm (Binance), Tigran Gambaryan, is proven right.
Agbese who represents Ado/Ogbadibo/Okpowu federal constituency in Benue State is among the three lawmakers accused of demanding $150 million bribe from the Binance Boss to enable them end prosecution by the Nigerian government against him.
In a phone conversation with lapalabras.com, on Friday, shortly after the Binance Boss made the claims on a post on X (formerly twitter), Rt Hon. Agbese who is also the Deputy Spokesman of the House of Representatives accused Gambaryan of being “a fraudster and a blackmailer who is just out to drag people into the mud to be able to escape the crimes he has committed against Nigeria.”
This is even as he challenged him to provide evidence to corroborate his claims.
While dismissing Gambaryan allegation that Reps demanded the bribe to be credited into their personal crypto accounts, he insisted that he has never operated an electronic wallet, not even the e-Naira that was introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
He said he knows nothing about crypto currency, has never transacted in crypto currency and does not have a crypto wallet, nor does he know what it looks like.
The Binance Head of Financial crime had on Friday in a post on his X-handle named Philip Agbese, Peter Akpanke, and Ginger Obinna Onwusibe, as Reps who asked for gratifications from him to enable them use their influence to end his arrest and prosecution by Nigeria.
Hon. Onwusibe heads the House Committee on anti-corruption.
“At the meeting that I attended at the office of my colleague we only exchanged pleasantries and talked about crypto currency. No member at that meeting requested for a single dollar from any one of them.
“When the matter was first reported by the press, the chairman of the Committee, Hon. Ginger Onwusibe took the matter to court. And I am aware after he went to court he addressed a press conference on the issue. One of the Executives of the Binance group did apologise to Onwusibe and the parliament.
After that the next thing I heard was that they were arrested by the EFCC and DSS and one of them disappeared from lawful custody. After that time I never heard anything about Binance again until these wild, baseless and fictitious allegations,” Agbese said.
When contacted, Spokesman of the House of Representatives, Hon. Akin Rotimi, said he was waiting for clearance to issue a statement on the controversy.
However, he was yet to issue the statement over one hour after speaking with this medium.
