Samuel Oyejola, Abuja
The Embassy of Ecuador has refuted fake news published by several media houses over Ecuador and Nigeria signing a visa-free agreement for Nigerian citizens.
The Officer in Charge of Ecuador Embassy in Nigeria, Mr. Jaime Campas disclosed this during the weekend in a statement made available to Time Nigeria.
The statement reads: “Embassy of Ecuador is presently headed by the Charge D’Affaires of Ecuador to Nigeria, Mr. Jaime Campas, as the former Ambassador, His Excellency, Leopoldo Rovayo completed his tour and left Nigeria for his new position as Ambassador in Belarus on the 27th of April, 2018.
“The news about the Embassy signing a visa free agreement with the Federal Government of Nigeria, for Nigerian citizens, as published by different media houses is completely false, and should be disregarded as the former Ambassador to Nigeria whose name was mentioned in the publication to have reached the agreement made no such deal while in charge of the Embassy in Nigeria and neither in his absence.
“Any news regarding Ecuador Embassy concerning issuance of visas and other activities of the mission, will be sent out directly by the Embassy of Ecuador. The Nigeria media and the general public should take note.
“The Embassy condemns this development and urge the media houses to permanently delete, from the online platforms, this fake news as it did not originate from the Embassy, to avoid misunderstanding that could affect the good people of Nigeria who might want to migrate to Ecuador.
Mr Campas hinted that the embassy would not hesitate to explore legal options on the media houses if the fake news circulating online are not permanently deleted to avoid further misinformation of the public.
The Embassy however assured the good people of Nigeria, willing to travel to Ecuador that the Embassy will continue to support and facilitate their visa application processes as we have been doing it so far.