The Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation Europe Russia (NIDO) has publicly dissociated itself from the fraudulent activities perpetuated by one Godwin Ibe hiding under the guise of NIDO Russia to spread false information as well as deceiving the public with his mischievous acts.

The Chairman, NIDO Russia and member of the  Board, NIDO Europe, Sampson Uwem-Edimo, at a virtual meeting  announce its dissociation from the fraudulent act of this individual, said NIDO’s attention has been drawn to several public video recordings, publications in the print and electronic media and commercials, in which one individual in Russia, has been confusing or deceiving the public by presenting his entity as the Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation Russia.

In his words, “The purpose of this conference is to state categorically that we at NIDO Russia completely disassociate ourselves from any information to the public that is unauthorised by NIDO Russia. We have informed the public through the press that nobody can present themselves as who they are when they are not.

The person parading himself as Chairman NIDO had never been a member and we have checked the names in the continental level and that name has never appeared so this person has never been a member and there is no way you can be a Chairman of an association if you are not a member.”

He added, “We cannot be responsible for a statement said by someone who is claiming to be something he is not. This person is making statements concerning poliitcs and the terrorist attacks that happened in Moscow. This is not what we do because we do not have enough information to issue this kind of statements. We have nothing to do with this individual.

We have filed a case to make it such that no one  at least inside Russia can use our trademark to perpetuate any crime.”

According to him, NIDO is also looking for ways to stop him from using a very close domain name that is very close in semblance with NIDO Russia’s while also stopping him from operating the website.

“So far any legal actions in Nigeria has not been taken, but we are considering that. It is difficult for me to explain why they are doing this, because they know what they are doing is very wrong,” he bemoaned.

“We at Nigerians in Diaspora Organization (NIDO) Russia, a chapter of the umbrella organisation of Nigerians Diaspora in Europe have decided to set the records straight and notify the unsuspecting public that the so called “NIDO-Russia”, which Dr Godwin Ibe leads, is not the same as the “Nigerians in Diaspora Organization Europe, Russia Chapter (NIDORussia)”.

We therefore disassociate ourselves from all comments, interviews and publications that have been made by this

individual and regard his actions as fraudulent as he had no authorisation to represent NIDO

Russia,” he added.

He, therefore, called on the public, particularly the press in Nigeria and Russia to be weary of this situation and avoid being misled to misrepresent the organization by presenting and transmitting Dr Godwin Ibe’s NIDO-Russia, as ‘Nigerians in Diaspora Organization Russia’. “Dr Godwin Ibe’s NIDO-Russia is neither known to NIDO-Europe nor NiDCOM as one of the

structures (Chapters) of the mainstream NIDO in Russia,” he averred.

Also speaking, the NIDO RUSSIA First Chairman  and Board Member, Dr. Ayo Ojajune, said the Organisation is aware of the set of people behind the unscrupulous act, maintaining that NIDO has the instrumentation to address the situation.

“We all know those people who are behind this and we have the instrumentation for dealing with them, but unfortunately, we are just starting to use the huge instrumentation that we have to deal with them. It is unfortunate that some people who do not want anything good to come from this country are going to soil our name and this is very disheartening,” he lamented.

On his part, the Continental Chairman, NIDO Europe, Dr. Bashir Obasekola, said the situation is disheartening and urged the Nigerian press to disregard fake news.

“This is more like an organised crime and an attempt to destroy the image of a very long and existing organisation. We have always been what we are known for and we are moving forward through the Board of Trustees in NIDO Europe. We should stop promoting illegality and we should discourage any negative impact on our image as a country to keep the nation on a progressive path,” he urged.