Freight Monitor

War-weary ANLCA beckons on Ozo Chukwura to broker peace. —-as crisis worsens

Eyewitness reporter

As the war of attrition in the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents(ANLCA) rages, the brutalised gladiators and other members of the association who are apparently weary from the long-drawn war may have shown a sign of fatigue.

The crisis, which started about three years ago at the beginning of the tenure of the present National Executives Council of the association led by Tony Iju Nwabunike, has since not shown a sign of abatement as it has remained intractable.

However, some members of the association, especially those who are vulnerable and at the receiving end of the needless war, have called on Prince Ozo Chukwura, to step in to douse the raging conflagration that is threatening to consume the association.Prince Chukwura, a member of the Council of Registration of Freight Forwarding Practice in Nigeria(CRFFN), told journalists in Lagos of his ongoing reconciliatory efforts to bring peace to ANLCA.

” I was inspired by my desire for peace and the need to restore sanity to the association”

“I do not want any loss of lives because this crisis was getting out of hands and if care is not taken, it may snowball into bloodletting which I abhor.

“However, what really emboldened my resolve to take up this role of peacemaker despite the obvious challenges was when I went to Tin Can port a few weeks ago, I walked into a group of young members of our association who said to me,” Oga you are the only one we trust to take up the role of a peacemaker ”

“They said they had confidence in my ability and capacity to bring the two warring parties to the reconciliatory table”

“Alhaji Lungu was there, Lala and one Bamidele Shittu were all there. It was raining, that very day when they appealed that I should do something about the ANLCA crisis. That was the day they said the Transportation minister came to Apapa”, Chukwura said of what inspired him to take the role of peacemaker.

He revealed that even though ANLCA was not new to crises, “but this present crisis is quite unique”

While giving the blow-by-blow account of the genesis of the crisis, Prince Chukwura declared that the crisis was caused by the desire of one of the aggrieved parties to take revenge for the perceived wrong done by the other group.

He said in the course of his interaction with the aggrieved parties, he found out that the motivating factor behind one of the warring groups was to destabilise the administration of Tony Iju to avenge the wrong they perceived he did to them.”Chief Elochukwu called me by my name and said ‘Ozomena, We( he refers to the remaining five members of the board who the court said were not recognised but later got registered on one side and the other three before Aare Sanni Shittu died) are like bulls in the Chinese shop”

“You can interpret the idiomatic expression he used”

“He said their main aim is to destroy Tony Iju’s s administration, that he would not be relevant”

“They felt Tony Iju destroyed the little tenure they had as the BOT members through what they regarded as his insincerity of purpose when he was called upon to intervene in the crisis in the BOT then.

“They felt that by his attitude which they regarded as playing pranks, Tony allowed the crisis in the BOT to fester to his own advantage which eventually truncated their tenure”

” So they felt what they are doing was a tit for tat, a payback time”

“That is exactly what is happening. Any other things you are hearing or they are telling you is secondary”

“That is at the core of the present crisis.
This is the exact word Elochukwu used, that they are like bulls in the Chinese shop. You can quote me” declared the peacemaker.

Prince Chukwura, a one-time Chairman of Tin Can Chapter of the association and later the Zonal Co-ordinator of the association in the West, and now a member of the Owerri BOT said he has been to the top gladiators in the crisis in order to get their buy-in into his reconciliatory efforts.He expressed confidence in the success of his peace move as some of the main actors have shown positive signs of cooperation with his move.

“My intention, therefore, is to cause a peace meeting of the two contending sides, together with the past Presidents who are available where all these issues will be looked into and thoroughly debated and a consensus will be reached to achieve the desired peace”

“There is no one who does not want peace no matter how you pretend.

“Nobody has a monopoly of violence but it is essential we embrace peace because we all have children and relations.

“Violence has no ethnic colouration and is an ill-wind that blows no one any good.

“No ambition of anyone is worth the blood of one member of the association”Prince Chukwura, who said he was neutral in the ongoing crisis, enjoined all the warring parties to sheath their swords in the interest of peace and development of ANLCA.

He said he was ready to sacrifice his position on the new BOT if that is what is required to bring peace to the association.

Watch out for the full exclusive interview with Prince Ozo Chukwura on this platform

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Freight Monitor

Stakeholder calls out Amaechi to account for millions of Naira in remittances made by freight forwarders under CRFFN.

Segun Musa

Eyewitness reporter

As Rotimi Amaechi, the Minister of Transportation is intensifying his campaign to be the next President of Nigeria, an aggrieved stakeholder in the maritime industry, Segun Musa, has called the APC presidential aspirant out to account for millions of naira remitted by Freight Forwarders under the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding practice in Nigeria(CRFFN) which is under the supervision of his ministry.

Musa, a frontline freight forwarder and former Chairman of the Airport chapter of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), claimed that freight forwarders, since the inception of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding Practice in Nigeria (CRFFN) in 2007 and as stipulated by the Council Act, have been making annual remittances to the Federal Government through the ministry of Transportation in terms of annual dues and membership subscriptions of the CRFFN,

The concerned stakeholder further alleged that these monies, which have run into several millions of naira, are yet to be accounted for.

Musa further alleged that the amount accrued from the remittances made by freight forwarding companies and individual freight forwarders, may have been mismanaged, hence his call for accountability.

“We are soliciting the support of all well-meaning Nigerians and other stakeholders to call on the Ministry of Transportation to respect the FOI Act and give details of total collections from individual and corporate annual dues from the inception of the CRFFN Act and explain how it has been utilised as well as the law that backed up the usage.

“The critical stakeholders in the transport subsector are suspicious of possible mismanagement of the public funds tagged (annual dues) contributed by freight forwarders into the coffers of the Federal Government under the supervision of the Ministry of Transportation.

“The reports in circulation indicate that the Ministry of Transportation has mismanaged hundreds of millions in naira so far contributed by freight forwarders as the stipulated dues in line with the Act that established the CRFFN from their income aside from statutory taxes deductibles.

“The law compelled every freight forwarding company to pay a stipulated amount as dues annually as well as every individual staff of the companies to remain in practice.

“Despite the inconvenience due to the global economic meltdown and slowdowns in business as well as the biting inflation impacts, members of the freight forwarding industry complied with the directives as enshrined in the law” he noted.

Musa expressed regret that despite the statutory obligations of the CRFFN board to use this amount accrued from the annual dues and subscription to train freight forwarders, all the training so far organised by the Council were fully paid for by freight forwarders themselves except very few that were free.

“It is sad to note that the essence of compliance is due to the fact that the revenues pool would be deployed to build members’ capacity to meet global standards and position them to participate in the oil and gas sector in Nigeria.

“It is most unfortunate that all the training organised so far were paid for in full by stakeholders aside from few that came as free” he declared.

Musa, therefore, expressed reservation over the collection of the controversial Practitioner Operating Fee(POF) made compulsory to be paid by freight forwarders and sanctioned by the Ministry of Transportation despite several millions of annual remittances that are yet to be accounted for.

“The alleged mismanagement of public funds contributed by freight forwarders came as a result of the same Ministry of Transportation that has not accounted for the hundreds of millions in naira contributed so far aside government allocations and subvention, now demanding for revenues from every imported shipment into the country tagged Practitioner Operating Fee (POF).

“This simply means regardless of membership annual subscriptions or dues paid, aside the Customs license renewed with lots of money, aside customs duties, shipping companies charges and terminal charges, you will still have to pay something similar to customs duty to the Ministry of Transport before imported goods will be allowed to exit the ports”

The NAGAFF chieftain, while lamenting the plethora of charges imposed on freight forwarders in a stifling economy, said this has made Nigerian ports non- user friendly .

“This is the kind of policy that has made our ports not to be business-friendly and has been encouraging manufacturers to exit our country as well forcing importers to patronise the neighboring ports.

“This policy is not only strange to International best practices but also strange to any economic ideology targeted at adding any kind of values to any sector of the economy.

“We hereby implore our strategic partners to help in calling out the Honorable Minister for Transportation to come and account for what we have contributed to the pool under his supervision, how it has been utilised and as a matter of responsibility, jettison the idea of POF because it is an intellectual fraud targeted to further impoverish the innocent Nigerians” Musa further alleged,

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Freight Monitor

Ameachi inaugurates 4th CRFFN board amidst muffled complaints over imposition of principal officers

Rotimi Amaechi, Minister of Transportation

Eyewitness reporter

The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, Wednesday inaugurated the fourth governing board of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding Practice in Nigeria (CRFFN).

The 32- members governing board was inaugurated in a low-key manner devoid of any funfair.

An insider source whispered to our reporter that Ameachi, who seemed to had already made up his mind on the principal officers who will pilot the affairs of the council, rushed the process which returned the erstwhile chairman and the Vice Chairman of the now-dissolved 3rd governing board unopposed.

“There was no election. The Minister just sauntered into the conference room of the ministry and said that he would not spend more than one minute with us.

“After that, he asked us if we wanted the status quo to remain, to which we all chorused in the affirmative.

” So the former Chairman, Alhaji Tsanni Abubakar was returned unopposed while his former Deputy in the last board, Chief Henry Njoku, was also returned unopposed as the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the new board respectively.

“He didn’t just give us any chance to make our own choice, the Minister merely stampeded us.

“That man cannot be the President of Nigeria. He is too dictatorial” a member of the new board who did not want his name in print for fear of reprisal action, lamented.

However, Kayode Farinto, the Acting President of the National Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) and a member of the new board, told our reporter that the Minister was merely exercising his right as enshrined in section six of the CRFFN act which gives him the power to direct.

“It was that power to direct he relied on .”

When asked why nobody could challenge the imposition of the principal officers, especially the chairman who was not an elected but selected member, Farinto said no one was qualified to vie against him.

“Even, if we, the elected members, decided to run against him in an election, don’t forget that the government selected members are more than us who were elected.

” While we are 15, the selected members are 17 and that put them at an advantage”.

The Minister however told the members of the board that they would be invited at a later date for the ceremonial aspect of the inauguration.

With the Wednesday inauguration, the fourth governing board of the CRFFN has officially taken off and was told to hit the ground running.

15 freight forwarders were elected into the council during the March elections which took place in Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt on 9th March 2022 while 17 members were selected by the government from different agencies to make up the 32- member governing board.

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Freight Monitor

Farinto urges Customs brokers to mobilise 5m votes for presidential candidate who is freight forwarders- friendly

Kayode Farinto, Ag, Pre4sident, ANLCA

Eyewitness reporter

Kayode Farinto, the Acting President of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) has enjoined freight forwarders to use their votes to bring in a government that has a passion for the welfare of freight forwarders in Nigeria.

The ANLCA chieftain made this call Monday in his May Day/ Sallah message to the freight forwarders confraternity.

Farinto, who bemoaned the harassment and intimidation the freight forwarders are being subjected to under the outgoing government in terms of multiple charges, levies and extortions, urged the oppressed customs brokers to use their PVCs to bring in a presidential candidate who will end the misery and sufferings of freight forwarders.

Consequently, he asked that the freight forwarders should mobilise at least five million votes in the maritime industry for a presidential candidate among the legion of contenders who will work for the welfare of customs brokers.

“The inconsistency in government policies is an eye-opener and we will enjoin our members to give the over five million votes in the industry to a presidential candidate that will be explicit on how to assist the Freight forwarding profession viz a viz implementation of people’s welfare policies their support and endorsements come 2023.

Farinto said the present government has shown a lack of empathy for the suffering and harassed freight forwarders who are even overburdened with all manner of charges in the face of an economic crunch.

“We won’t allow anyone to fool us like this outgoing government is doing.

“We are gradually losing our profession to foreign domination courtesy of lack of law that will protect indigenous practitioners”, he lamented.

While urging the freight forwarders to brace up for the reintroduction of the revised Vehicles Identification Number (VIN) valuation policy this month, the ANLCA Chief warned them to be on their guard against people who may wish to compromise the process to the detriment of freight forwarders.

“Let me commence by saying that, it is obvious that the NCS will be implementing the VIN VALUATION this month, going by the news filtering around us in the industry and we need to monitor this because people will not want the process to be successful may introduce things outside our agreement into the procedures”

“I have released the agreed procedures on clearance of Standard Chassis vehicles that fall within VIN valuation and Non-Standard chassis vehicles,salvage, and accidented vehicles a few days ago.

“We need to allow these new changes going by all we go through in the hands of customs various units to clear vehicles in the ports”

He recounted the horrific process of a clearance procedure, especially of vehicles, which he said is laced with extortions by the Customs

“Even when you take your valuation, many alerts are put on our declarations and it takes the grace of God and difficult conditions to get them out of the ports.

“As if that is not enough, you need to know the numbers of calls we receive from our members delivering these vehicles within and outside the Lagos environment.

“Many customs units will say, your values are compromised, it must be jacked up and many of us are at their mercies pleading that DN should not be issued on already exited vehicles.

“This and many more things are what we believe The VIN valuation will eliminate.

“Many agents have been given forged and mutilated valuation papers by the third parties and are left to suffer the consequences of whatever happens.

“We do not need all this to get our vehicles released and we promise to challenge any command that may want to use the office of monitoring to extort money from our members when this new process commences.

The ANLCA Acting President also promised that the controversial issue of the National Automotive Council (NAC) 15 percent level will be pursued to its logical conclusion through the involvement of the national assembly and the instrumentality of the soon to be inaugurated Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding Practice in Nigeria (CRFFN).

“The issue of 15 percent NAC turn levy will be pursued vigorously immediately after the Sallah break

because we will engage the National Assembly on the need for them to know that, this government is not sensitive to the plight of the masses to have introduced a levy at this period when the economy is in comatose.

” And we will also ensure that the Federal Ministry of Finance is dragged before the people’s representatives on this matter.

“Since the CRFFN governing council may also be inaugurated this week, it will be our first issue to be raised at the plenary which needs urgent national attention.

“All our efforts to eliminate NAC turn levy is being done in collaboration with the motor dealers association”

Farinto however said that before these lofty objectives of the leadership of the freight forwarders could be achieved, the members of the confraternity must be united to achieve their common goal.

“We must however come together to achieve greatness. An injury to one should be an injury to all” he declared.