ABUJA: Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan threatened legal action on Thursday against a website that listed him as Africa’s sixth richest head of state with a net worth of about $100 million.

The article on richestlifestyle.com provided little evidence to substantiate its list of Africa’s eight richest presidents.

But the claims about Jonathan, who has led Africa’s top oil producer since 2010, made front page news in several Nigerian newspapers on Thursday.

Jonathan’s inclusion in the article was “baseless and libellous,” his office said in a statement. “President Jonathan has never been a businessman or entrepreneur,” it added.

“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,” it said.

Jonathan’s office demanded “a retraction and an unreserved apology from Richest Lifestyle.com and all those who have reproduced the offensive article, and threatened action in courts of law within and outside Nigeria. While there was no retraction or apology on the site, the item concerning Jonathan has been removed.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2014