President Jonathan Demands Retraction And Apology For Inclusion Of Name In List Of Richest African Presidents

Yesterday, richestlifestyle.com published names of Africa richest president.Read it here. Nigeria’s President, Goodluck has demanded a retraction and apology from a website that included his name in the list of richest African Presidents, describing the publication as baseless and libelous. President Jonathan’s name was included in a list published by richestlifestyle.com as the sixth richest African President with estimated net worth of 100 million dollars. In a statement by the President’s spokesman, Reuben Abati, the President Jonathan condemned the totally unwarranted inclusion of his name 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.

The statement read: “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”.

Mr Abati pointed out that there had been no significant variation in the totality of President Jonathan’s 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 RichestLifestyle.com and other publications, which he described as “irresponsible, copy-cat publications”.

He further emphasised that the “clear and unacceptable imputation of the claim that President Jonathan is worth about $100 Million is that the President has corruptly enriched himself while in office which is certainly not the case”.

The presidency further demanded a retraction and an unreserved apology from other publications that had reproduced the offensive article, warning that if they failed to respond to the request, they should be prepared to substantiate their libellous claims against the President in courts of law within and outside Nigeria.