TheCable

The federal government has queried the Nigerian ambassador for reportedly attending the inauguration of the US embassy in Jerusalem.

A presidency official confirmed this to state house correspondents on Tuesday.

The decision of US President Donald Trump to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel had drawn criticism from Europe and Washington’s main Arab allies.

The relocation of the American embassy to Jerusalem had also generated condemnation from from Palestine and led to the deaths of at least 41 persons.

The presidency official, who spoke to journalists on the condition of anonymity, said Geoffrey Onyeama, minister of foreign affairs, has queried the ambassador, whom he thought attended the event but did not.

Al Jazeera had reported that Nigeria was among the countries that were represented at the inauguration, a claim the presidency has denied.

“Based on that report, the minister queried the ambassador to explain why he attended the event,” the official said.

“The ambassador has since replied that he was not at the event. It was on the strength of the ambassador’s response that the federal government wrote to Al Jazeera to retract its story.”