President Muhammadu Buhari said on Monday that his administration has taken further steps to recover looted Nigerian funds by identifying the banks and countries where the monies were lodged.
Speaking at an audience with visiting United States Congressmen at the presidential villa, Abuja, Mr. Buhari acknowledged the support and cooperation given his administration by the international community in gathering all required intelligence for tracing and recovering stolen national resources.
“We are getting cooperation from the international community, including information on ships that take crude oil from Nigeria and change direction, or pour their contents into other ships mid-stream,” he said. “Some monies were paid to individual accounts. We are identifying the financial institutions and countries that are involved. “I have been assured that when we get all our documents together, the United States and other countries will treat our case with sympathy,’’ the president told the Congressmen led by Darrel Issa. President Buhari also told the lawmakers that his administration will encourage more regular meetings of the Nigeria-United States Bi-National Commission.
The President also ordered the National Planning Commission (NPC) to go back to the drawing board and produce the framework for a 2016 national budget that would reduce recurrent expenditure and prioritise developmental projects.
He gave the directive after receiving a briefing from the Executive Secretary of the Commission, Dr. Bassey Akpanyung, who led the directors and other top management staff to the Presidential Villa as a continuation of briefings from the ministries, departments and agencies, (MDAs).
A statement by his Media aide, Garba Shehu quoted the President as directing Akpanyung and directors of the NPC to give capital projects priority because Nigeria cannot achieve real development without adequate investment in capital and infrastructural projects. “In carrying out its role in surveillance of the economy, review and appraisal of policies, the Commission should devise a plan for a realignment of the budget so that capital projects can be really prioritized,” the President directed.
