Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari has commended a Nigerian doctoral student in Japan for returning a missing wallet full of money and not taking the 10% reward, his social media assistant Bashir Ahmad has tweeted.

President @MBuhari salutes Mr. Ikenna Nweke for projecting the values of honesty, integrity and contentment that should be the hallmark of a people, noting that good virtues and propriety are the hallmark of every culture in Nigeria, while crimes and criminalities are exceptions. pic.twitter.com/eRPnNpeCi1

— Bashir Ahmad (@BashirAhmaad) July 4, 2020

Reports from earlier this week said that Ikenna Nweke was out buying a take-away in the Japanese city of Tsukuba when he saw the wallet on the ground. He then handed it in to the police.

“The police told me that according to Japanese law, that I was entitled to 10% of the money found inside the wallet but I declined, " he told the International Centre for Investigative Reporting.

"I told him that there was no need for that because I was raised by responsible parents, and that I am also a Christian.”

Mr Buhari praised the student "for projecting the values of honesty, integrity and contentment that should be the hallmark of a people", Mr Ahmad said.

Mr Nweke had already received a letter from the Nigerian embassy in Japan saying he was a "good example to all".

Update: Mr Ikenna Nweke, just got a letter of commendation from Nigerian authorities in Japan. Congratulations! https://t.co/sJ5awZh48M pic.twitter.com/ZJywNZxPIp

— AIT (@AIT_Online) July 3, 2020