Immediate past Chairman of the chapter, Mr. Kayode Farinto, seemed to have answers to this poser and others.
Addressing journalists in his office yesterday, Farinto had accused the Deputy Comptroller-General in charge of Tariff and Trade, NCS, Mr. Julius Nwagwu, of allegedly playing an underhand role in the ANLCA election.
Farinto accused Nwagwu of allegedly blocking, without just cause, the licence of his company, Wealthy Honey Investment Limited, allegedly in connivance with the Association Electoral Commission (ASECO) to bar him from contesting in the election.
He said: “We discovered that in the 21st of June, 2013, when I was supposed to go for this interview with ASECO, we noticed that they have blocked my licence. I made some calls to Abuja to know why my licence, because we deliberately did not use the licence to make any declaration, knowing full well that they have been looking out to intimidate or coerce Wealthy Honey Investment Nigeria Limited. And I was reliably informed that my licence was unilaterally blocked by the DCG, Tariff and Trade, DCG Julius Nwagwu. I want to know what DCG Nwagwu’s role in the politics of ANLCA. I also want to state categorically that the role played by DCG Nwagwu shows the fact that he is bias and actually supporting a particular group.”
Farinto further said that it was baseless of the Alhaji Mukaila Babatunde Abdulazeez-led ASECO to use the blocking of his Customs licence as an excuse to bar him from contesting in the Chairmanship election, asserting that the issue of his blocked Customs licence did not, going by the ANLCA Constitution, disqualify him from contesting.
He also debunked insinuations that his licence was blocked, because it allegedly was involved in fraudulent practices.
“Deliberately, Wealthy Honey has not made any declaration in the last six months. We saw it coming and we had suspected this, to the extent that they profiled my licence, hence I decided not to use Wealthy Honey to make any declaration. And if it did not make any declaration, how would it be involved in any fraudulent practice,” he said.
The former ANLCA Tin-Can Islnd Port boss said that “I am personally suing DCG Nwagwu in his capacity, as the DCG Tariff and Trade, for his unilateral action to have blocked my license. I am also going to sue the Nigeria Customs Service for blocking my license. By virtue of the Customs and Excise Management Act you can actually revoke somebody’s license but the language of saying blockage/suspension is a new thing in the industry and it’s because we were not litigious that is why some people takes law into their hands and they do whatever they like,” he stated.
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