President Muhammadu Buhari has stated that he would review thoroughly the 2016 Appropriation Bill passed by the National Assembly (NASS) before giving his assent.
Buhari said that the review of the budget would be made Ministry by Ministry to ascertain if there were strange inputs different from its original contents when he submitted it.
However, the National Assembly on Thursday said that the details would be made available in two weeks.
Speaking on Thursday at a meeting with the United States Secretary of State, Mr. John Kerry on the sideline of the 4th Nuclear Security summit in the country, Buhari was worried that the original details of the budget may have been tampered with.
According to him, “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”.
On anti corruption , Buhari declared that he would be thorough and vigorous, just as he also secured assurances from the US Secretary that all stolen Nigerian funds found within the American banking system would be returned to the country.
“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 said.
He commended the US government for assisting Nigeria in its war against Boko Haram insurgents.
The President stated that the United States had been of great assistance to his administration in the retraining and re-equipping of the Nigerian Armed Forces, which he said had resulted in the significant success already achieved against Boko Haram,
President Buhari said that the Federal Government was working very hard to restore full normalcy in the North Eastern states.
In his words, “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.”
Responding to the stolen funds issue, Kerry hinted that the stolen Nigerian funds were in “billions of dollars”, adding that “It’s not easy to hide that amount of money and we are pretty good in tracing them”.
Kerry assured President Buhari that the relevant United States Government Officials would interface with the Chairman of Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu to discuss further modalities.
The Presidential spokesman, Mr. Femi Adesina has stated that Kerry commended the Buhari Administration’s success against the Boko Haram insurgency.
Adesina ,who made this known in a statement added that the United States would continue to give Nigeria all possible support to ensure that the terrorist sect was finally eliminated as a threat to national and regional security.
