Abuja - Nigerian Vice President Goodluck Jonathan has warned people, including ministers, against taking advantage of the ailing president's long absence from the country to cause disharmony in government.

President Umaru Yar'Adua left Nigeria on November 23 and has since been hospitalised in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for an acute heart ailment.

A statement by Jonathan's spokesman Ima Niboro on Saturday said government was aware of moves by some top government officials and other influential Nigerians to sponsor false and malicious campaigns against him.

It said Jonathan was miffed at a newspaper report saying he was waiting to take instructions from the president's wife Hajiya Turai Yar'Adua before exercising presidential powers in line with a high court ruling.

"This report is entirely false. The vice president wants to state clearly that the last time he spoke with the First Lady was on Tuesday, January 5th, after he spoke with the president," the statement said.

"There is no doubt that those who packaged the report are only attempting to paint non-existent pictures to the Nigerian public in the effort to create mischievous scenarios of undecisivesness on the part of the vice president," it said.

It said the vice president was effectively in charge of government, adding "barely 48 hours after the decision (court ruling), we all witnessed how the vice president led the Senate president, speaker of the House of Representatives, the Chief Justice of the Federation and the service chiefs, to take the salute at the Armed Forces Remembrance Day."

The statement said Jonathan also dismissed media speculations that he was planning to sack some ministers appointed by the president.

"The vice president uses this occasion to state that key officers of government that are on top of their jobs need not harbour such fears," it said, adding that those working to cause acrimony and disunity in order to advance personal aggrandisement have every reason to fear."

By SAPA