Abdulfattah Olajide & Ben Atonko
9 November 2008
Angered by the alleged false report published in yesterday's edition of Leadership Weekend on his state of health, President Umaru Musa Yar'adua yesterday directed his lawyers to sue the newspaper for libel and publication of falsehood.
Leadership had published on its front-page a report titled which alleged that the president "has not attended any public function in the last two days" and that he was equally absent from Friday's Jumah services at the National Mosque, Abuja, because of ill health.
A strongly worded statement issued yesterday by the Special Adviser to the president on communications, Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi, 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".
Adeniyi also said, "the President has graciously tolerated over twenty months of false rumours, speculations and innuendoes about his health, but the Leadership newspaper report of today crosses all acceptable lines of professional ethics, decency, decorum and respect for others' rights and feelings. There are laws against libel, defamation of character and publication of falsehoods in our statute books."
The full text of the statement reads:
"Since the inception of the present administration, its political opponents and their allies in the media have persistently assailed the nation with malicious rumours and outright falsehoods about President Umaru Musa Yar'adua's state of health.
"Well after President Yar'adua had personally addressed the so-called ambiguities about his health on national television, affirming that while, like all humankind, he was by no means immune to ill-health, but fit enough to lead Nigeria effectively; the political opposition and their cronies in the media have willfully refused to let the issue go.
"The regular fare of baseless rumors, speculations and malevolent lies about the President's health and its alleged effect on his ability to govern came to a head this morning when the Leadership newspaper
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