U.S. condemns Nigeria attacks

At least 32 people are dead and 80 others were wounded after an explosion Tuesday in Nigeria.

The blasts were the latest by Boko Haram, Nigeria’s home-grown extremists who have killed 20,000 and forced 2.3 million to flee their homes in their six-year insurgency.

A new report says Nigeria’s Boko Haram Islamic insurgents have become the world’s deadliest extremist group, edging out the Islamic State group to which it is affiliated. Under Buhari’s predecessor Goodluck Jonathan, when Dasuki was in office, Boko Haram took control of parts of Nigeria’s northeast where it is trying to carve out an Islamic state.

On Tuesday, more than 30 people were killed by a suicide bomber in the north-eastern Yola city in an attack blamed on Boko Haram.

Critics had questioned the ineffectiveness of Nigeria’s once-powerful military forces despite an annual defence budget of between $5 and $6bn, supplemented past year by a loan of $1bn.

Buhari has also ordered the arrest of other former high-ranking officials linked to the scandal, said Adesina. The need to hunt for that much in missing funds is “a testament to how badly Nigeria has been run”, Buhari said. He said his brother, Kamal, was selling sugar cane to truckers and his uncle had gone to look for him.

The arrests have brought to five the total number of suspects wanted by the Nigerian army. The audit also showed that of the 513 contracts awarded for arms procurement, 53 were “failed contracts” worth over $2 billion.

In July, when he visited Washington to discuss the fight against Boko Haram, Buhari requested that U.S. President Barack Obama help track down the jaw-dropping amount of money allegedly stolen by corrupt officials.

“Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Yusufu Buratai, who is on constant communication with the troops, commended them for this singular act and other similar feats and encouraged them to do more so that the terrorists are on the verge of being defeated”.

He said security agencies will overcome the militants “very soon”. “The soldiers went on a mission for the Nigerian nation and they have since returned and joined their Battalions”.

Dasuki, 60, had usurped the role of the ministry of defence in procuring weapons.