By Levinus Nwabughiogu
ABUJA- Against the controversial stories of budget padding, President Muhammadu Buhari has said that he would critically review the 2016 Appropriation Bill recently passed by the National Assembly before giving his assent.

PRESIDENT BUHARI ATTENDS

This was even as he secure assurance from the United States government to repatriate all stolen funds to Nigeria.

The president stated 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.

The media was awash, Wednesday, with a story of likely delay of the presidential accent of the budget consequent upon the non availability of the details by the National Assembly.

But reacting to the story, the National Assembly on Thursday said that the details would be made available in two weeks.

But speaking on Thursday during a meeting with the United States Secretary of State, Mr. John Kerry on the sideline of the 4th Nuclear Security summit in the country, president Buhari feared that the original details of the budget may have been tampered with.

He said “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”.

While declaring that his anti-corruption would be thorough and vigorous, president also secure 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 also appreciated the US government for assisting Nigeria in its war against terrorism.

Acknowledging that the United States has been of great help 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 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,” he said.

Responding on the stolen funds, the Secretary of State remarked of hints that the stolen Nigerian funds were in “billions of dollars”, saying “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.

A statement by the presidential spokesman, Mr. Femi Adesina stated that Kerry commended the Buhari Administration’s success against the Boko Haram insurgency.

It 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.

The Secretary of State  also commended President Buhari and the Nigeria’s Armed Forces for giving recourse to human rights of persons in the theatre of operations against Boko Haram while combating terrorism.