Nigeria's Goodluck Jonathan threatens legal action over 'heavy' birthday celebration claims
Goodluck Jonathan, president of Nigeria, denies accusations he missed London investment summit after "heavy" birthday celebrations
Nigeria's
president has threatened legal action after reports he missed an important
investment summit in London after "heavy" birthday celebrations at
his suite at a luxury Park Lane hotel the night before.
Goodluck Jonathan sought medical attention for what his adviser said was "an
indisposition" the day after his 56th birthday, and doctors recommended
that he rest instead of attending the meeting.
But an online news service claimed that instead he was laid low after
overindulging at the presidential suite at the Park Lane InterContinental
hotel during a party that the website alleged "lasted till early [in
the] morning".
This was an "entirely fictional, malicious, hate-driven and scurrilous
distortion of the facts of the president's indisposition", Reuben
Abati, Mr Goodluck's media chief, said in a statement on behalf of his boss.
"Their incessant claim of a bibulous president is pure fiction and
blackmail, and the product of malicious imagination," he said.
"We warn that our forbearance of their disrespectful caricaturing of the
president is not limitless.
"[The news sites] are not beyond the bounds of legal action for libel and wilful defamation of the character and reputation of a president who has courageously stepped forward to serve his country."
In fact, Mr Abati said, the president spent most of his birthday in the air on his flight from Abuja, Nigeria's capital, to London, and then had a quiet gathering for friends and close advisers in his hotel room.
"It has never been his custom to celebrate birthday anniversaries and no exception was made this year," Mr Abati said. "No birthday party was therefore held for the president in London." After receiving treatment for what were described as "acute abdominal pains", Mr Goodluck returned to the investors' forum the next day and gave his speech.
He has visited London for medical reasons in the past. His predecessor, Umaru Yar'Adua, died while in office after a long illness.
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