President Muhammadu Buhari Thursday arrived Washington DC to participate in the 4th Nuclear Security Summit.
He was welcomed at the airport by Minister of Defence, Monsur Dan Ali; Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu; Director-General, Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority, Prof. L.A. Dim; Director-General, National Intelligence Agency, Ambassador Ayodele Oke, and Senior Special Assistant on Diaspora Hon. Abike Dabiri.
President Buhari later held bilateral talks with the United States Secretary of States, Senator John Kerry, at the Walter Washington Convention Centre.
He asked the United States for help in returning stolen Nigerian assets stashed in US banks as part of his efforts to crack down on corruption, according to a statement from Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina.
“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,” the statement said.
Buhari told Kerry it would “greatly help our country if you assist us to recover all our stolen funds which we can establish to be within your financial system,” according to the statement.
It said Kerry assured Buhari the United States would help traced what he has been told were in “billions of dollars” and that US officials would meet with the head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to discuss further cooperation.
“It’s not easy to hide that amount of money and we are pretty good in tracing them,” Kerry said.
State Department spokesman John Kirby confirmed that Kerry had offered “continued U.S. support to locate and help with tracing and investigating looted funds, as we have done for Nigeria in the past.”
In 2014 the United States took control of more than $480 million that former dictator, Gen Sani Abacha, and his associates had siphoned away into banks around the world.
Washington has broad powers to track suspicious funds and enforce sanctions against individuals.
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