Washington promises Buhari it will return $350m of stolen funds stashed away in the US

WASHINGTON has pledged to return a sum of about $350m made up of funds seized from corrupt politicians who stashed ill-gotten wealth away in the US to President Muhammadu Buhari.

 

During the week, world leaders gathered in London for a global anti-corruption where President Buhari gave a keynote address. US secretary of state John Kerry was also in attendance and at the event he promised the president that the US government would assist Nigeria's anti-corruption fight by returning the cash.

 

Mr Kerry said: “This money goes somewhere, folks. I read that tens of billions of dollars were stolen from President Buhari’s country by generals and put into other nations, some of it in our country.

 

"We are now working to restore $350m back and there’s more to be restored to the people. Every one of those million dollars that comes back to a country is the opportunity to provide a desk and a chair and school and shelter and health care and meet the needs of nations."

 

He added that this is why nations need to organise ourselves around the rule of law and in an effort to try to provide for their citizens. According to Mr Kerry, criminal activity is a destroyer of nation-states because it contributes to drug trafficking and arms smuggling.