The 72-year-old head of state, in Washington for talks with US officials, alleged that 250,000 barrels of crude were being stolen every day, with the profits going into individual bank accounts.
Buhari, a former military ruler, has carved a reputation as a no-nonsense crusader against graft and has vowed the corrupt and corruption "will have no place" in his government.
He told an audience at the Nigerian Embassy in Washington on Tuesday evening that the United States and other countries "are helping us to trace such accounts now".
"We will ask that such accounts be frozen and prosecute the persons. The amount involved is mind-boggling. Some former ministers were selling about one million barrels per day," he alleged.
"I assure you that we will trace and repatriate such money and use the documents to prosecute them," he said, according to a statement from his spokesman Femi Adesina.
Buhari, in power since May 29, has pinpointed the state-run oil firm as a key culprit in a pervasive culture of corruption, sacked the entire board and ordered an investigation into its finances.
Last year, a political row ensued between his predecessor Goodluck Jonathan and the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, who alleged $20 billion of oil revenue had gone missing.
The governor, Lamido Sanusi, was later sacked.
Buhari has accused the previous administration of leaving the treasury "virtually empty" and is grappling with how to turn around an oil-dependent economy hit by falling global crude prices.
The focus of looted state revenue has until now been focused on accounts linked to the former military ruler Sani Abacha, who ruled with an iron fist from 1993 until his death in 1998.
Abacha is suspected to have looted the public purse of some $2.2 billion, squirreling away the money in European accounts.
In March last year, the United States said it had ordered a freeze on $458 million in assets stolen by Abacha and his accomplices, calling him "one of the most notorious kleptocrats in memory".
Since then, Switzerland has said it will return some $380 million seized in Luxembourg in 2006, after a deal in which Nigeria accepted to drop a case against Abacha's son.
Times Live
Related story: Nigeria's $20 billion oil leak
Wednesday, July 22, 2015
Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari ready to negotiate with Boko Haram for kidnapped schoolgirls
Nigeria's new president has said he is willing to negotiate with Boko Haram leaders for the release of more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped last year.
Muhammadu Buhari told CNN it would depend on the credibility of those saying they represented the Islamist militant group.
"Our main objective as a government is to secure these girls safe and safe," he said during a visit to the US.
A previous prisoner-swap attempt for the girls' release ended in failure.
The kidnap of the girls from a boarding school in the north-eastern town of Chibok in April 2014 sparked global outrage.
The mass abduction sparked one of the biggest social media campaigns last year, with the Twitter #BringBackOurGirls being used more than five million times.
Boko Haram, thought to be responsible for more than 10,000 deaths since 2009, has stepped up attacks since Mr Buhari took office in May, vowing to tackle the insurgency "head on".
'Arms dealer arrested'
"If we are convinced that the [Boko Haram] leadership that presented itself can deliver these girls safe and sound, we'll be prepared to negotiate what they want," President Buhari, a former Nigerian military ruler, told the US broadcaster.
"We have to be very careful about the credibility.... [of those] claiming that they can deliver... we are taking our time because we want to bring them safe back to their parents".
He told CNN that bringing security to stabilise Nigeria - both in dealing with the oil militants in the south as well as the Islamist insurgents in the north-east - was his main priority.
"Nothing will work until this country is secure," he said.
In last seven weeks, he has replaced his military chiefs, moved the military headquarters to the north-east and organised for the deployment of a multi-national force to fight Boko Haram by the end of July.
Meanwhile, a Nigerian spokesman has told the BBC that the multi-national force has arrested a suspected arms dealer in Chad who was allegedly supplying weapons to the militants.
Mr Buhari was speaking in Washington after meeting US President Barack Obama and World Bank officials about securing help to tackle Boko Haram.
The US has committed $5 million (£3.2m) to the fight against the insurgents since his election.
And the World Bank has pledged $2.1bn to help rebuild north-eastern parts devastated by the insurgency, Mr Buhari said on Tuesday.
Many villages and towns have been burnt down during six-year insurgency and more than one million people have fled their homes.
The Chibok schoolgirls have not been seen since last May when Boko Haram released a video of around 130 of them gathered together reciting the Koran.
Some of those who were kidnapped have been forced to join the militant group, the BBC was told last month.
Amnesty International estimates that at least 2,000 women and girls have been abducted by Boko Haram since the start of 2014.
BBC
Muhammadu Buhari told CNN it would depend on the credibility of those saying they represented the Islamist militant group.
"Our main objective as a government is to secure these girls safe and safe," he said during a visit to the US.
A previous prisoner-swap attempt for the girls' release ended in failure.
The kidnap of the girls from a boarding school in the north-eastern town of Chibok in April 2014 sparked global outrage.
The mass abduction sparked one of the biggest social media campaigns last year, with the Twitter #BringBackOurGirls being used more than five million times.
Boko Haram, thought to be responsible for more than 10,000 deaths since 2009, has stepped up attacks since Mr Buhari took office in May, vowing to tackle the insurgency "head on".
'Arms dealer arrested'
"If we are convinced that the [Boko Haram] leadership that presented itself can deliver these girls safe and sound, we'll be prepared to negotiate what they want," President Buhari, a former Nigerian military ruler, told the US broadcaster.
"We have to be very careful about the credibility.... [of those] claiming that they can deliver... we are taking our time because we want to bring them safe back to their parents".
He told CNN that bringing security to stabilise Nigeria - both in dealing with the oil militants in the south as well as the Islamist insurgents in the north-east - was his main priority.
"Nothing will work until this country is secure," he said.
In last seven weeks, he has replaced his military chiefs, moved the military headquarters to the north-east and organised for the deployment of a multi-national force to fight Boko Haram by the end of July.
Meanwhile, a Nigerian spokesman has told the BBC that the multi-national force has arrested a suspected arms dealer in Chad who was allegedly supplying weapons to the militants.
Mr Buhari was speaking in Washington after meeting US President Barack Obama and World Bank officials about securing help to tackle Boko Haram.
The US has committed $5 million (£3.2m) to the fight against the insurgents since his election.
And the World Bank has pledged $2.1bn to help rebuild north-eastern parts devastated by the insurgency, Mr Buhari said on Tuesday.
Many villages and towns have been burnt down during six-year insurgency and more than one million people have fled their homes.
The Chibok schoolgirls have not been seen since last May when Boko Haram released a video of around 130 of them gathered together reciting the Koran.
Some of those who were kidnapped have been forced to join the militant group, the BBC was told last month.
Amnesty International estimates that at least 2,000 women and girls have been abducted by Boko Haram since the start of 2014.
BBC
Tuesday, July 21, 2015
Lufthansa lets go 13 Nigeria trainee pilots due to non-payment of fees
The delay by President Muhamadu Buhari to appoint a new head to drive the Presidential Amnesty Programme, PAP, has begun to take a toll on the beneficiaries of the scheme.
In far away Germany, no fewer than 13 Nigerians from the Niger Delta region undergoing commercial point training at the Lufthansa Flight Training School in Frankfurt, have been sent away for non-payment of fees.
Vanguard learnt that the Nigerian pilots who would have graduated from the prestigious aviation training institution, were axed last Friday due to their inability to pay for sundry fees stipulated in their training manual.
The fees were for accommodation and training logistics.
Apart from that, six of the pilots who had already completed their training had their licenses withheld by the school.
Two of the students sent home for non-payment, had only one test to complete their Programme for Commercial Pilot Licence, one was in his final stage of the CPL test while four had just started their type rating test and would have completed next month.
A source at the PAP confirmed to Vanguard yesterday that there was money in the account of the agency with the Central Bank of Nigeria but that there was no signatory to authorize the payment to the beneficiaries since the exit of the former presidential aide, Kingsley Kuku.
President Buhari is yet to name a Special Adviser on Niger Delta, who doubles as the chairman of the PAP and is the chief executive of the agency.
Before leaving office in May this year, Kuku had written PMB to either allow him to pay the May financial obligations to avoid a breakdown of law and order or appoint a new signatory for the account.
However, no appointment has been made and the ex-militants who collect a monthly salary of N65,000 and the students who are spread around major universities around the world and Nigeria, are suffering, as a result.
Vanguard
In far away Germany, no fewer than 13 Nigerians from the Niger Delta region undergoing commercial point training at the Lufthansa Flight Training School in Frankfurt, have been sent away for non-payment of fees.
Vanguard learnt that the Nigerian pilots who would have graduated from the prestigious aviation training institution, were axed last Friday due to their inability to pay for sundry fees stipulated in their training manual.
The fees were for accommodation and training logistics.
Apart from that, six of the pilots who had already completed their training had their licenses withheld by the school.
Two of the students sent home for non-payment, had only one test to complete their Programme for Commercial Pilot Licence, one was in his final stage of the CPL test while four had just started their type rating test and would have completed next month.
A source at the PAP confirmed to Vanguard yesterday that there was money in the account of the agency with the Central Bank of Nigeria but that there was no signatory to authorize the payment to the beneficiaries since the exit of the former presidential aide, Kingsley Kuku.
President Buhari is yet to name a Special Adviser on Niger Delta, who doubles as the chairman of the PAP and is the chief executive of the agency.
Before leaving office in May this year, Kuku had written PMB to either allow him to pay the May financial obligations to avoid a breakdown of law and order or appoint a new signatory for the account.
However, no appointment has been made and the ex-militants who collect a monthly salary of N65,000 and the students who are spread around major universities around the world and Nigeria, are suffering, as a result.
Vanguard
Video - Barack Obama pledges support to Nigeria's fight against Boko Haram
US President Barack Obama has pledged to support his Nigerian counterpart Muhammadu Buhari in the fight against Islamist militant group Boko Haram.
In the first meeting between the two since Mr Buhari's election, Mr Obama said the Nigerian leader had a "very clear agenda" for defeating extremism.
The US has committed $5 million (£3.2m; €4.6m) to the fight against Boko Haram since Mr Buhari came to power.
The jihadists have killed thousands in north-east Nigeria since 2009.
Speaking after the two met at the White House, Mr Obama called Nigeria one of the most important countries on the African continent and praised Mr Buhari for tackling corruption, an issue which compromised Washington's relationship with the Nigerian leader's predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan.
Boko Haram has carried out attacks in northern Nigeria since its insurgency began in 2009, most notably the April 2014 kidnapping of 276 Nigerian school girls who are still missing.
President Obama's wife Michelle got involved in an online campaign to draw attention to the girls' plight, #BringBackOurGirls, and the US sent surveillance flights over Nigeria to help locate them.
However, the US refuses to sell weapons to Nigeria because of concerns over its army's human rights record.
BBC
Monday, July 20, 2015
2 dead in suicide bomb attack in Damaturu, Nigeria
At least two people were killed on Monday after a car suicide bomb detonated at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Damaturu, capital of Yobe state in northern Nigeria, witnesses and a hospital source said.
The checkpoint is along a major highway that connects the city with Borno state capital Maiduguri. The road and villages along it are frequently hit by bombs or raids by suspected members of Islamist jihadi group Boko Haram.
Reuters
The checkpoint is along a major highway that connects the city with Borno state capital Maiduguri. The road and villages along it are frequently hit by bombs or raids by suspected members of Islamist jihadi group Boko Haram.
Reuters
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