Nigeria's past leaders stole 507 billion dollars from public funds: official

Chairman of Nigeria's anti- corruption Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Nuhu Ribadu has said that some of Nigeria's previous leaders stole about 64 trillion naira (about 507 billion U.S. dollars) from public coffers.

He said here on Monday that the money, meant to serve as development assistance, was removed within a period of 40 years.

Ribadu spoke at the launch of a public-civil society partnership conference tagged "Fix Nigeria Initiative" in the capital Abuja.

He said there was a need to collaborate with civil society organizations and the public to map out strategies for preventing the pilfering of public funds.

Ribadu said 8,610 petitions had been received by the EFCC, of which 2,103 cases were being investigated while more than 2,000 people had been arrested for corruption within the last three years.

Source: Xinhua