A group under the name Joint National Association of People with Disability (JONAPWD) has cautioned individuals as well as some organisations against the use of their trademark for malicious intent.
In a statement jointly signed by the Board and National Executive Members of the Association, on Wednesday 13 April in Abuja, where they called on all individuals who are planning on using the name of the group to enrich themselves to desist from doing Ihat in order not to be penalized.
According to a release signed by the
“The Board and National Executive Members of the Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities (JONAPWD) the Association is concerned about several uncoordinated and unregulated activities with its instituted structures across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
“Our recent analysis has revealed that amongst other factors, the aforementioned trend has detrimental consequences against the pursuit of JONAPWD’s core mandates. Worrisomely, it strongly hinders JONAPWD’s ability to robustly articulate its annual programmes and financial performances, defaces the actualities about how JONAPWD is performing and how it plans to improve its national interventions.
“Major Areas for Public Interest: Given the above preamble, we hereby wish to categorically state the following:
Use of JONAPWD’s Trademarks:
JONAPWD would like to advise the public against the infringement, abuse or misuse of its name and logo and in any formal/informal medium or form.
The name JONAPWD and its logo is a registered trademark of the Association under the Companies and Allied Matters Act of 1991. As such, any usage of this trademark by members of the public requires a written and signed consent by the National President through the National Secretariat which is headed by the Executive Director. JONAPWD reserves its right to take actions against such infringement and misuse of its name and logo. Any entity infringing, abusing or misusing JONAPWD’s name and logo in any medium or form is hereby advised to stop doing so immediately.
JONAPWD would also like to advise all duty bearers and right holders (private, public and development partners) against subscribing to interventions initiated by any legal or illegal entity that claims it has been authorized or licensed by JONAPWD to embark on any project or programme. Such alignments escalate associated risks militating against projected outcomes, cum its long-term positive impacts in the disability communities”.
“JONAPWD’s Management Narratives:
For a fact, we are aware of the maligning narratives going around which are constantly magnified to reinforce the “keep them poor” ideologies.
“Notwithstanding, by being the unified body positioned to advance strategic relevance of umbrella federations of persons with disabilities across the numerous disability types, it is expectedly inevitable to run up against perspectives that contradict one another”.
“As a unified people, we have grown and learnt from our antecedence. We have enshrined our association with progressive resolution strategies which are deemed most appropriate to different situations irrespective of the personalities involved. Our review of past organizational practices, in this regard, has informed better strategy choices vis-à-vis future occurrences”
JONAPWD also stated that, Conflict
is inevitable, but it does not define us. Our current structural efforts are stsharingeared to increase dialogue among groups and to share information. In similar vein, we are determined to sustain effective intergroup actions directed at conflict prevention and reduction.