[Photos] President Goodluck Jonathan Departs Nigeria For UN General Assembly In New York.

Pictures of Goodluck Jonathan departing Nigeria for UN General Assembly,

New York Presidency released the photos to dispel a report by SaharaReporters that Mr. Jonathan secretly flew out of Abuja last night to visit his ailing wife in Germany.

The three photos show some Nigerian officials, including the Secretary to the Federal Government, Pius Anyim, bidding Jonathan goodbye. Also, several ministers, service and police chiefs are seen waiting to bid the president goodbye at the airport.

SaharaReporters ran the three photographs through a quick Exchangeable Image File (Exif) scan to determine the camera equipment, time and date they were taken. The scan showed that the photos were taken with a NIKON D300 camera and also revealed that the photos had 2011 dates. A photo editor who ran the scan said it would be curious if State House photographers had failed to program their cameras to a correct date.

Also, it could be noted that the president was departing in a Gulfstream aircraft while one of our sources had disclosed that a bigger Boeing business jet had departed from Abuja last night.

SaharaReporters could not determine if local and international media were also allowed to cover Mr. Jonathan’s departure.

Source SR.