The Presidency has responded to the publication by
RichestLifestyle.com where President Goodluck Jonathan was named Africa's sixth
richest president.
This response was made known in a statement issued by Reuben
Abati, the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the president who described
the list as libelous and demanding a "retraction of the
article and an unreserved apology" from Richest Lifestyle.com and all those who have reproduced the offensive article. .
Excerpt of the issued statement:
“We have noted with
consternation the listing of President
Goodluck Ebele Jonathan by a website – RichestLifestyle.com - as the
sixth richest African President with an estimated net worth of $100 Million
U.S. Dollars.
The Presidency
condemns the totally unwarranted inclusion of President Jonathan in the
publication titled “Africa’s Richest Presidents 2014” as another attempt to
unjustifiably portray the President as a corrupt leader and incite public
disaffection against him.
We categorically
assert that there is no factual basis for ranking President Jonathan as the
sixth richest African Head of State with a net worth of about $100 Million U.S.
Dollars.
As is well known,
President Jonathan has never been a businessman or entrepreneur, but a
life-long public servant. The President has held public office since 1999 and
has regularly declared his assets as required by Nigerian laws. He has had no
personal income since 1999 other than his official remuneration as deputy
governor, governor, vice president, acting president and president which are
matters of public record.
There has been no
significant variation in the totality of his personal assets as contained in
his last declaration to the Nigerian Code of Conduct Bureau in 2011 which, as
can be verified, was a very, very far cry from the $100 million figure now
being bandied about by Richest Lifestyle.com and other irresponsible, copy-cat
publications.
The clear and unacceptable imputation of the
claim that President Jonathan is now worth about $100 Million is that the
President has corruptly enriched himself while in office which is certainly not
the case.
We therefore demand a
retraction and an unreserved apology from Richest Lifestyle.com and all those
who have reproduced the offensive article.
Otherwise, they should
be prepared to substantiate their libellous claims against the President in
courts of law within and outside Nigeria."
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