President
Muhammadu Buhari said Thursday in Washington DC that he will critically review
the 2016 Appropriation Bill passed by the National Assembly before signing it.
Speaking at a meeting
with the United States Secretary of State, Mr. John Kerry, President Buhari
said that in view of the controversial alteration and padding of the budget
proposals, he needed to review the appropriation bill to be certain that its
contents tallied with the authentic budget proposal presented to the National
Assembly.
“Some bureaucrats
removed what we put in the proposal and replaced it with what they wanted. I
have to look at the bill that has been passed by the National Assembly,
ministry by ministry, to be sure that what has been brought back for me to sign
is in line with our original submission,” the President said.
Declaring that his
administration will continue to vigorously prosecute its war against
corruption, President Buhari sought and received an assurance from Mr. Kerry
that the United States Government will facilitate the repatriation of all
stolen Nigerian funds found within the American banking system.
“It will greatly help
our country if you assist us to recover all our stolen funds which we can
establish to be within your financial system,” the President told Mr. Kerry.
Responding, the
Secretary of State said that he had been told that the stolen Nigerian funds
were in “billions of dollars”.
“It’s not easy to hide
that amount of money and we are pretty good in tracing them,” Mr Kerry assured
President Buhari, adding that relevant United States Government Officials will
meet with the Chairman of Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to
discuss further cooperation in that regard.
Mr. Kerry applauded
the Buhari Administration’s success in rolling back the Boko Haram insurgency,
saying that the United States will continue to give Nigeria all possible
support to ensure that the terrorist sect is finally eliminated as a threat to
national and regional security.
The Secretary of State
also praised President Buhari’s clear order that Nigeria’s Armed Forces must
show greater regard for the human rights of persons in the theatre of
operations against Boko Haram.
Acknowledging that the
United States has been of great help to his administration in the retraining
and re-equipping of the Nigerian Armed Forces that has resulted in the
significant success already achieved against Boko Haram, President Buhari said
that the Federal Government was now working very hard to restore full normalcy
in the North Eastern states.
“Boko Haram no longer
holds any local government area. We are reconstructing damaged facilities and
preparing the police to take over and reassert civilian control over areas
affected by the insurgency,” the President told Mr. Kerry.
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