LAGOS (AFP) — A report Tuesday, purportedly from Nigeria's official news agency, that President Umaru Yar'Adua may resign because of ill health brought a furious denial from the presidency.
"The presidency wishes to affirm that there is no truth whatsoever to the suggestion that President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua is contemplating resignation from office," his spokesman Olusegun Adeniyi said in a statement.
An email appearing to originate from the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), bearing the NAN sender address, and in the format NAN uses for flashes, said that Yar'Adua was likely to step down soon for health reasons.
The president was treated in a Saudi hospital in August for an undisclosed problem.
The email that appeared to come from NAN said "President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua may resign after a cabinet reshuffle, on health grounds".
A cabinet reshuffle is expected in coming days.
Adeniyi said it "can only be assumed that the report is the handiwork of persons who do not wish the country well".
"For the avoidance of any doubt whatsoever, President Yar'Adua has no intention of abandoning the mandate given to him to lead Nigeria further along the path to restoration, growth and development," Adeniyi continued.
Information Minister John Odey told AFP the report was a "fabrication".
Another presidential aide, who asked not to be named, called the report a "rumour" which he suspected was aimed at causing confusion in the West African regional powerhouse.
"This smacks of deliberate sabotage and an attempt to cause chaos in the country," he told AFP.
The state of Yar'Adua's health is a regular subject of media speculation. And the report came on the day that the respected independent daily, The Guardian, carried an editorial entitled "The President's health and an anxious nation".
NAN has distanced itself from the resignation story. Its deputy editor-in-chief Olusegun Aribike said "we believe that it is a mischief maker at work".
The presidential aide said a probe had been launched into the origins of the report "for appropriate sanction".
"Grave fabrication such as this will not be ignored," said the aide.
The information minister reportedly visited the NAN headquarters in Abuja after the dispatch was electronically mailed to some clients including AFP and most of the local media.
Yar'Adua, who turned 57 on August 16, was dogged by ill-health even during the campaign that brought him to power in April 2007.
The president went into hospital in Saudi Arabia while officially on a pilgrimage last month.
Details of his illness have never been officially made public, but he is believed to have a history of kidney problems.
On Tuesday night, federal security officers arrested three people at a offices of private television Channels in Abuja and two others at its outlet in Lagos, according to the management of the station, which went off the air.
Other informed sources said a top editor at the NAN news agency was also arrested, but this could not be confirmed by the agency late Tuesday.
Last week, two days after he arrived back in office from the Muslim pilgrimage, Yar'Adua created a new ministry to help solve the problems of the strife-wracked Niger Delta, the country's main oil producing region.
Militants fighting for greater share of the oil revenue in the Delta have stepped up attacks on oil installations in recent days.
Yar'Adua took on a job he never asked for -- hand-picked by his predecessor Olusegun Obasanjo to succeed him in last year's election.
The poll was marred by widespread fraud, according to virtually all the observer groups.
A court case brought by Yar'Adua's two major opponents attempted to have him removed as president. The case has so far failed but further appeal hearings are expected in coming months.
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