Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has vowed to expose more national treasury looters.

Addressing the Buhari Diaspora Support Organisation (BDSO) members in London, the president said wicked plunderers had condemned Nigerians to a life of poverty.

He noted that he inherited in 2015, an administration without savings and with a badly vandalised economy.

The 73-year-old Buhari who is gunning for a second term, said the damage done to the economy in the years of plunder was massive, and that government was doing its best to recover some of the loot, although it was impossible to identify and recover all.

Were so inept

“If they had used 50 per cent of the money we made when oil prices went as high as $143 per barrel and stabilised at $100, with production at 2.1 million barrels per day for many years, Nigerians would have minded their businesses.

“You could almost grow food on our roads, as they were abandoned. The stealing was so much, and they were so inept that they could not even cover the stealing properly. I wonder how all those things could have happened to our country.”

The Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, quoted President Buhari saying that Nigeria was gifted with tremendous human and natural resources and regretting that the leadership failure had led to the inability to improve the lot of the people.

The president thanked BDSO for deciding to identify with Nigeria, “when you could have stayed here, and being comfortable”.

Information minister Lai Mohammed said in Lagos on Monday that the pressure being mounted on the government over its decision to expose alleged looters was not unexpected.

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"We know where the pressure is coming from. However, the die is cast. We will not stop until we have released the names of all those who have looted our commonwealth. Those who have not looted our treasury have nothing to be afraid of,” Mr Mohammed said.

The minister pointed out that it was the exclusive preserve of the courts to try or convict anyone accused of corruption.

Mr Mohammed reiterated that it was the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that challenged the Federal Government to release the list of alleged looters.

To that end, he insisted that the argument that the list only contained the names of PDP members was misleading.

Military equipment

Former National Security Adviser Sambo Dasuki is facing probe over $2.1 billion military equipment scandal.

He is also accused of embezzling over $1.5 billion and 5.5 million British Pounds.

Fugitive former Petroleum Resources minister Dieziani Alison-Madueke is to account for more than $19 billion and many of her properties and those of her cronies have been seized in Nigeria, the UK and the US.

Many aides of former President Goodluck Jonathan have been arrested and were being prosecuted, as were those of former First Lady Patience Jonathan.