Tigran Gambaryan, a former Binance employee and ex-U.S. federal agent, has alleged that President Bola Tinubu’s administration extorted $50 million from the Joe Biden administration as ransom for his release from detention in Nigeria.

Mr Gambaryan made the revelation in a post on X on Saturday, thanking his former employer, Binance, for speaking out about his ordeal.

“Thanks @cz_binance. Then they bragged about extorting the Biden administration out of $50 million to release me. @realDonaldTrump @WhiteHouse @RepMcCormick @RepFrenchHill,” Mr Gambaryan stated.

His post was in response to an earlier statement by Binance founder, Changpeng Zhao, who accused the Nigerian government of unlawfully detaining Mr Gambaryan for eight months.

“Nigeria also basically kidnapped Tigran Gambaryan, an ex-Binance employee and an ex-US federal agent, for 8 months without cause a year ago,” Mr Zhao wrote on X.

The development came shortly after President Donald Trump threatened to sanction Nigeria and launch a military attack targeting violent non-state actors in the northern region of the country.

“If the Nigerian government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, ‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities,” Mr Trump said. “I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action. If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians! WARNING: THE NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT BETTER MOVE FAST!”

The Nigerian government has yet to respond to Mr Gambaryan’s claim.