Nigerian precedent Umaru Musa Yar'Adua is set for a legal battle with an Abuja-based Newspaper, Leadership, over the reports on his state of health, local media reported Sunday.
Unhappy with a story on the paper titled: Yar'Adua Sick Again, the president denied the reports and ordered his legal team to institute appropriate actions against the Abuja-based Leadership newspaper.
Concern about the president's health heightened when he traveled to Saudi Arabia for two weeks in August.
Contrary to reports that the trip was to receive medical attention in a hospital in the oil-rich country, presidency officials maintained it was strictly for religious purpose, lesserhajj, the Nation reported.
It was learnt that the president has been worried by persistent media reports on his health, maintaining that they portray him as unfit and incapable of governing the country.
According to a statement signed by the presidential spokesman Olusegun Adeniyi, President Yar'Adua's is still of the opinion that a free and unfettered press is essential to the growth and entrenchment of democracy in Nigeria.
"One thing the president would however not allow is the propagation of spiteful and malicious falsehoods which has become an acceptable weapon of political opposition in our country," Adeniyi said.
The statement titled "propagation of malicious falsehood is not an acceptable weapon of political opposition," said, "There is no truth in the entire report and the lies on which it hangs are so easy to disprove that the only reasonable conclusion is that the publishers of the newspapers ran the report in furtherance of their reprehensible efforts to embarrass the president and destabilize his administration."
It said, If it had any regard for the truth at all and made the least effort to confirm the veracity of the assertions in its report, Leadership newspaper would know that the claim that "Yar' Adua has not attended any public function in the last two days" isa big lie.
"The truth is that the president is in good health and has been attending to all his official duties in full view of the media in the past week. Yesterday, he participated in the International Investors Forum chaired by Baroness Lynda Chalker at the Banquet Hall of the State House before going to the National Mosque for Jummat prayers," it said.
The president arrived at the Sheraton Hotel at about 3.30 p.m. local time to receive President Horst Kohler of Germany and other heads of state participating in the Germany-Africa Forum and was there until well after seven o'clock in the evening, the statement said.
"The president has graciously tolerated over twenty months of false rumors, speculations and innuendoes about his health, it said.
"In keeping with his commitment to upholding the rule of law at all times, President Yar'Adua has directed his lawyers to take appropriate legal action against the Leadership newspaper and pursue the case to its logical conclusion," it said.
Source:Xinhua
|
Comment
Tell A Friend
Print Format
Save Article