Press statement from the Presidency .
President Muhammadu Buhari said on Thursday
in Washington DC that he will critically review the 2016 Appropriation
Bill passed by the National Assembly before assenting to it.
Speaking at a meeting with the
United States Secretary of State, Mr John Kerry, President Buhari in a
statement by his special adviser media, Femi Adesina, 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 has 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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