I must review budget before signing – Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari says he will not assent to the 2016 Appropriation Bill passed by the National Assembly without critically reviewing it.
Buhari, according to a statement by his spokesman, Mr Femi Adesina, said in Washington DC yesterday at a meeting with US Secretary of State, Mr. John Kerry, that in view of the controversial alteration and padding of the budget proposals, he needed to review the bill in order to be certain that its contents tallied with what he presented to the National Assembly.
“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,” Buhari said.
The president sought and received an assurance from Kerry that the United States government would facilitate the repatriation of all stolen Nigerian funds found within the US banking system.
“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 acknowledged that the United States had been of great help to his administration in retraining and re-equipping the Nigerian armed forces which has resulted in the significant successes achieved against Boko Haram.
Buhari said the federal government was currently working to restore full normalcy in the North-eastern states.
The US Secretary of State was quoted to have stated that he had been told that the stolen Nigerian funds were in “billions of dollars”.  
“It’s not easy to hide that amount of money and we are pretty good in tracing them,” Kerry assured Buhari.
He added that relevant United States government officials would meet with the chairman of Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to discuss further cooperation in that regard.