Nigerian woman, Helen Mukoro Idisi, lands in police net in Spain for posing as UN women head, collecting money from people

A Nigerian lady living in Spain, Helen Mukoro Idisi, was on Thursday, January 2, arrested by the police in Spain for posing as the president of the Spanish branch of United Nations Women, requesting funds and giving interviews to the media.

The woman is currently in detention in Denia on Spain’s eastern Mediterranean coast on charges of impersonation and fraud.

She allegedly provided online legal courses and solicited “funds to carry out different projects related to the institution she claimed to represent,” police said in a statement.

She “participated in conferences and gave interviews in different media,” police said.

The investigation began in mid-2018 when the police received a complaint from the New York-based UN Women about a woman posing as the president of UN Women in Spain and the Spanish National Committee of UN Women.

UN Women, a body “dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women,” does not have a country office in Spain, according to its website.

After the complaint, there were several communications between the organisation and the woman in order to make her understand the illicit actions. She was asked to stop, but she refused.

On her personal website, she was said to have described herself an “archduchess” and “Nigerian aristocrat,” as well as a “Spanish politician, detective, author, legal expert, business and finance consultant.”

Her other claimed titles are president of the African Europe Chamber of Commerce, a non-existent organisation, and “advisor on diaspora and auxiliary affairs” of the Delta State government of Nigeria, where she was born.

She also established a political party, “Union de Todos” (Union for All), and participated in at least three elections. According to El Confidencial newspaper, she received the fewest votes to be Spain’s head of government in the last election, with just 31 votes.