Magnus Eze, Enugu
De Norsemen Kclub International, an international humanitarian organisation, has distanced itself from a group of Nigerians recently arrested by Italian security for allegedly running a criminal ring.
The people currently in Police custody in the European country had claimed to be members of Denorsemen Kclub International (DNKI) after they were arrested.
In a statement made available to Daily Sun on Tuesday, the group commended the Italian Police for apprehending the people and called on them to make sure that they were properly investigated and prosecuted to the full extent of the law if found culpable.
DNKI further warned the people to be mindful of imposters parading themselves as members of the organization and engaging in the extortion of unsuspecting members of the public with promises of admitting them into an organization that they themselves were not even members.
The statement by its Publicity Secretary, Dr Ike Felix, warned that such people could be using the name of the organization as a cover for their criminal activities.
For the avoidance of doubt, it said that Denorsemen Kclub is a lawfully registered organization with the Corporate Affairs Commission in Nigeria and equally registered in Italy with the Commission for Societal Affairs (amongst several other countries).
‘Our aims and objectives are universally uniform. We focus on charity to the needy and we leverage on the essence of brotherhood amongst members. We do not endorse or sponsor crimes. We have records of all our activities published for the world to see on our website: www.denorsemen.org.
‘It is in the light of this that we take particular exception to the attempts by the Italian media in trying to associate the activities of criminal elements with our noble Kclub. Such publications only help in misleading the public about the activities of Denorsemen Kclub as there are available records that show the facts. The logo displayed by the suspected criminals is our logo. It is a logo which Denorsemen Kclub has patented. Unfortunately, many other organisations have often displayed this logo with neither the consent nor prior knowledge of Denorsemen Kclub. It is, therefore, wrong to assume that the arrested persons are members of Denorsemen Kclub solely on the strength of our logo found in their possession.
‘Investigate these individuals. If there is anyone of them found to be a member of Denorsemen Kclub and who has been found to be complicit in any crimes, please let the full process of the law take its course,’ the group stated.
DNKI noted that ‘criminal liability is personal and cannot be transferred,’ hence, people should desist from associating criminal conduct with their noble organisation.
