Buhari Says U.S. Will Assist in Tracing Nigerian Stolen Oil Loot

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said the U.S. will help trace and recover funds from the sale of about 250,000 barrels of oil stolen on average each day in Africa’s biggest producer.

The U.S. and other developed nations are helping identify accounts where loot has been deposited and Nigeria will prosecute individuals involved, Buhari told a diaspora audience in Washington on Tuesday, according to a statement from his office on Wednesday. Some former ministers were selling a total of about one million barrels a day, he said.

“The amount involved is mind-boggling,” Buhari said. “A lot of damage has been done to the integrity of Nigeria with individuals and institutions already compromised.”

Buhari, who took office on May 29 after defeating Goodluck Jonathan in March elections, pledged during his campaign to clamp down on graft, including in the oil industry that provides Africa’s biggest economy with about two-thirds of government revenue and 90 percent of export earnings.

Buhari has this week asked U.S. President Barack Obama to help locate and return $150 billion believed to have been stolen by corrupt officials.

While Nigeria’s economy has been battered by years of entrenched graft and a halving of oil prices in the past year, Buhari said he was skeptical about removing fuel subsidies.

Transport, housing and food prices will “go out of control and the average worker would suffer untold hardship” if gasoline subsidies were removed, according to the statement.