Director, Media, Public Relations and Protocols Unit, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Mr Abdur-Rahman Balogun, has said the attention of the commission has been drawn to comments by an unidentifiable group, which tags itself, “Igbos in Diaspora.”
According to a statement by Balogun, the commission would have refrained from responding to the “despicable rants” by the group, but for the need to correct distorted facts.
The group had accused NIDCOM’s Chairman/CEO’s of “delayed” response to anti-Igbo comments by one Mr Kingsley Ugiagbe in Austria against the Igbo people, while taking punitive measures against one Amaka in Canada for similar offence, but the commission’s spokesman said it should be noted that immediately Kingsley Ugiagbe made his comments. the Edo Association in Austria reacted promptly by denouncing and disassociating themselves from the comments, and that Kingsley Ugiagbe showed remorse and apologised.
The statement further noted that NiDCOM was not petitioned by Nigerians in Austria because the Edo diaspora in Austria had immediately handled the issue with maturity, with Kingsley Ugiagbe tendering an apology and promising to be of good conduct, going forward.
“Meanwhile, the situation in Canada was different. Nigerian groups in Canada raised the alarm, sent several petitions to both NIDCOM and the Nigerian House of Representatives, as well as Canadian authorities, and were deeply worried that
rather than being remorseful, Amaka and her group bragged about the hate speech and wasn’t apologetic.
“This prompted NIDCOM and the House of Representatives Committee on Diaspora, headed by Chinedu Okere, to take an official action. We highly commend the Edo group in Austria for their leadership by taking the right immediate decision to castigate their kinsman without allowing the matter to degenerate.
“On the issue of the fake report of what the Canadian government said, the group failed to attribute the statement to any official in the Canadian government. It should be noted that Amaka is on bail with restrictions and we urge restraint on comments made on her behalf so it would not affect her negatively,” the commission said.
