Abuja – The Presidency has demanded an apology from the Peoples Daily newspaper over “an offensive report’’ it carried recently in its front page.

This was contained in a statement issued on Saturday in Abuja from the office of the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity.

The statement demanded a complete retraction of the report, which it said attempted to denigrate the character and integrity of President Goodluck Jonathan.

It accused the newspaper of publishing a fake dispatch purportedly written by an official of the Embassy of the U.S. in Nigeria, and said it should carry an admission that the contents had no factual basis whatsoever.

“We wholly condemn this cheap and totally unimaginative attempt to denigrate the character and integrity of the President on the front-page of a newspaper published under the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which expressly forbid false publications, libel, defamation and sedition.

“Ignoring tell-tale signs that even cub reporters elsewhere would have spotted right away, the `editors’ of Peoples Daily served up this despicable gargle in pursuit of their campaign after election against the Jonathan presidency.

“This fictional account of a meeting that never was is extremely provocative and must be condemned by all,” the statement said.

It said that there was absolutely no truth whatsoever in the account published by the newspaper of a purported meeting between President Jonathan, the U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria and the U.S. Under Secretary of State for African Affairs.

“No such meeting took place on the date indicated in the fake dispatch and the dialogue quoted by Peoples Daily is entirely the product of the imagination of the authors of the forged document,” the statement added.

It, however, reiterated the commitment of Jonathan to the relentless prosecution of the war against corruption.

The statement further stated that the president “will never, for personal or political reasons, interfere with the work of the EFCC, ICPC and other agencies involved in the national effort to stamp out corruption’’. (NAN)