Nigeria's Minister of Justice Mistakenly Exposes Himself Trading Cryptocurrency
- The Attorney General of Nigeria mistakenly revealed to Nigerians that he is trading cryptocurrency after releasing a screenshot of his phone
- Abubakar Malami was caught using the cryptocurrency exchange platform, Latoken, which allows its users to buy and sell the crypto with bank accounts
- The Central Bank of Nigeria had ordered financial institutions to prevent account users from using their bank account to trade cryptocurrency within the country
Amid the clampdown on cryptocurrency activities in Nigeria, the Attorney General of the Federation of Nigeria, Abubakar Malami, was caught to have been trading cryptocurrency.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had criminalised crypto trading, stating that only criminals were involved and no credible person with legitimate work would want to be associated with the digital currency.
Godwin Emefiele, the Governor of CBN, had claimed that individuals linked to digital coins use cryptocurrency to fund criminal activities. However, Malami who doubles as the Minister of Justice of Nigeria has proved the apex bank wrong.
Source: Facebook
In a bid to let Nigerians know that he has deactivated his Twitter account, Malami shared a screenshot of his phone, and in the process, he exposed his involvement in cryptocurrency trading.
A logo of Lotoken, a cryptocurrency exchange platform, appeared on the top screen of Malami's phone, as seen by Legit.ng. The exchange allows individuals to buy and sell bitcoin and other digital currencies.
With CBN standing order that all bank accounts linked to crypto be shut down, it is unknown if Malami's account is immune to the directive as a check on Latoken exchange showed users can only trade using credit, debit cards and bank accounts, with no mention of the peer-to-peer feature.
Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that bitcoin value dropped after the United States Department of Justice recovered the digital coins (ransom) paid to some hackers.
The hacker group called DarkSide had attacked Colonial Pipeline with ransomware which disrupted the company's operation and demanded a bitcoin ransom to free the firm's system, thinking it can't be tracked and recovered.
Following an agreement to send the ransom, the US agency had given a payment guideline to Colonial Pipeline, and this assisted in the recovery of the bitcoin. When this was made known, cryptocurrency value dropped.
Source: Legit.ng
