Presidential spokesperson, Reuben Abati has just sent in this press release below, reacting to the list published on the richestlist.com, calling out President
Jonathan as the 6th Richest African President,with a net worth of
$100million dollars.
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 libelous claims
against the President in courts of law within and outside Nigeria.