NCMDLCA faction reaffirms faith in AFFCON

Even as the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) has stoutly dissociated itself from the All Freight Forwarders Congress of Nigeria (AFFCON), a faction of the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), led by Chief Festus Ejiofor, is still much aligned with the body.
Unlike the National Secretary of ANLCA, Dr. Emma Oparah, who firmly asserted that he was not party to the letter by AFFCON, dated February 22, 2013, and sent to President Goodluck Jonathan to give its viewpoint on the readiness of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to take over from destination inspection service providers, National Secretary of the Ejiofor-led NCMDLCA, Comrade Ben Ndee, said that he had approved of the letter, noting that its subject matter represents the position of his association.

While noting that he is not disturbed by ANLCA’s claims that it is not a part of AFFCON nor the said letter, Ndee implied that the decision for the association to suddenly dissociate from the body could be because “the letter did not originate from the association’’.
He reiterated that the NCMDLCA is only concerned to see that the Nigeria Customs Service takes over the issuance of Risk Assessment Reports and scanning operations as soon as possible.
Secretary General of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarder (NAGAFF), Mr. Increase Uche, who signed the letter for AFFCON, said that although he was surprised at the sudden detachment of ANLCA from the body and the said letter, noted that there is no cause for alarm since the association, at the stakeholders meeting held yesterday in honor of the World Bank’s visit to the Customs Apapa Area 1 Command, advocated for Customs to take over from destination inspection service providers which was the crux of the content of the letter.



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