Fresh crisis rocks ANLCA as BoT describes CRFFN peace deal fraud

By Steve Agbota, Lagos

Members of the Board of Trustees (BOT) have described the peace deal initiated by the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) to resolve the five years crisis in the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) as monumental fraud.

This is coming barely four weeks after CRFFN brokered peace in the crisis that rocked the association for years, even as the members of the BoT had pulled out of the peace deal.

The BoT has also petitioned the Ministry of Transport over the actions and inactions by the CRFFN Chairman, Alhaji Tsanni Abubakar in the resolution of the ANLCA crisis, which it tagged as bias and pot of injustice.

This is even as the planned National Executive Committee (NECOM) election of the association also faces fresh uncertainty.

The BoT said the ministry has responded to its petition and all parties concerned have been invited to a meeting in Abuja on Thursday, April 13.

Speaking at a press conference in Lagos, a former President of the association, Chief Ernest Elochukwu kicked against the peace deal being initiated by the CRFFN Chairman, describing it as a monumental fraud and an attempt to subjugate one party in the dispute in the interest of the other party.

However, he accused the CRFFN Chairman of compromise in his purported reconciliation move, saying while the tenure of the NECOM expired on April 16, 2022, the NECOM illegally extended its tenure in office till April 2023.

He said the NECOM also further extended its tenure by three months to the knowledge of the CRFFN Chairman instead to hand over the affairs of the association to the BoT as stipulated in the ANLCA constitution.

According to him, while the BoT is ready to shift grounds and embrace peace to see an end to the crisis in the association, the reconciliation by CRFFN should be based on justice, equity and fair play.

“This press conference was at the instance of myself and Chief Dennis Okafor as members of the registered BoT of ANLCA who have not participated, either by the presence or by communication with what is going on. The essence is to let the media and the general public know that we are not part of the monumental fraud that is going on in ANLCA in the name of reconciliation and to let you know that even our members who had been railroaded into it are also not part of it.

“Considering the long time the crisis in the association has taken, any move for peace is most welcome but the question is what methodology is being employed or what kind of peace are we hoping to achieve because there are many types of peace. We have peace of harmony, peace of tranquillity and peace of the graveyard. We have always believed that a part of peace should also take cognisance of justice. There is no peace that will be done without justice,” he said.

Also speaking, a member of the BoT, Dayo Azeez, said while he welcomed the eight-man BoT peace deal by the CRFFN, he was, however surprised that the NECOM held a NEC meeting where the tenure of the executives was extended by three months without the knowledge of the board.

He also alleged that after the controversial AGM where a six-man ASECO, which would conduct elections into the national and chapter levels of the association were appointed, the NECOM increased the membership of ASECO from six to seven, a decision which is against the peace deal agreed by both parties.

He said, “I want to let you know that Taiwo Mustapha who is the Chairman of the board is in Saudi Arabia presently, but he is aware of this meeting, we have communicated with him and he gave his consent.
Why I am pulling out of the agreement is because after the meeting we had with them (NECOM), they held a NEC meeting around Wednesday/Thursday last week but we were not informed and some decisions were taken like the extension of their tenure for three months.

“We cannot accept that because we were not informed. They once extended their tenure from four years to five years which was expected to expire this week, April 16 but now they have extended their tenure for another three months whereas it is the BoT that is supposed to take over,” he said.