Ukraine in Arabic | Nigeria's president condamns his inclusion on the World’s Richest Presidents List
KYIV/Ukraine in Arabic/ A US website, Richestlifestyle.com has published its 2014 Africa Rich list which ranks Nigeria’s leader, President Goodluck Jonathan the sixth richest with a net worth of $100 million, about N16 billion.
A statement from the presidency said Mr. Jonathan's inclusion on the list had "no factual basis" and was an attempt to portray him as corrupt.
The site has since removed the Nigerian leader's name from the list.
In the sixth position, where Mr. Jonathan was placed alongside King Mswati III of Swaziland, it now says "this article has been removed" and there is a link to another website evaluating his finances.
In 2012, an official from the Nigerian watchdog body, the Code of Conduct Bureau, was quoted by Nigeria's Vanguard newspaper as saying that the president had declared his assets - but was not obliged by law to make the declaration public.
The statement from the presidency on Wednesday said there had been "no significant variation in the totality" of Mr. Jonathan's assets as declared to the bureau in 2011.
This figure, the statement said, was "a very, very far cry from $100m figure now being bandied about by richestlifestyle.com and other irresponsible, copy-cat publications".
The statement said that Mr. Jonathan had "regularly declared his assets as required by Nigerian laws" since 1999, when he first held public office.
"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," the statement said.
The office of the presidency had threatened legal action unless the website retracted the article and offered an apology.
