LAGOS (Reuters) – Nigerian authorities have seen documents suggesting the proceeds from past crude oil sales were diverted to personal accounts rather than reaching government coffers, President Muhammadu Buhari said on Wednesday.
Buhari, who took office in May after being elected on an anti-corruption ticket, said funds were “looted illegally”. He could not provide more details, since various cases were being taken to court, he told journalists in a televised interview.
Nigeria’s former oil minister Diezani Alison-Madueke is under investigation as part of a crackdown on corruption in the oil industry. She has denied any wrongdoing.
Buhari’s latest comments suggested other officials might also be named.
In the interview, the president also said the government was prepared to negotiate with the Islamist militant group Boko Haram to secure the release of around 200 schoolgirls kidnapped last year, if credible leaders were identified.
“We are prepared to negotiate with them without any preconditions,” Buhari said.
Boko Haram seized the girls from their dormitories in the northeastern town of Chibok in April 2014, prompting international outrage.
The militants have been waging a six-year campaign to create an Islamic state in northern Nigeria. In the latest flare-up, two suicide attacks in the area where Boko Haram operates killed at least 48 people on Monday, a day after a military attack on the group.
Buhari said there was no firm intelligence on the whereabouts of the girls or whether they are still alive.