ANLCA swears in new Western Zone chapters excos today
• Shittu packages c’ttee to treat electoral cases
• Reactions trail polls
Barring any last-minute hitches, the members of the various executive committees that emerged in last Thursday’s Western Zone Chapters Elections of the Association of Nigerian Licenced Customs Agents (ANLCA) are to be sworn in today at Villa Park Hotel, Amuwo-Odofin, Lagos, a short walk away from the association’s National Headquarters.
This is even as the ANLCA National President, Prince Olayiwola Shittu, has informed SHIPS & PORTS DAILY that the leadership of the association is setting up a committee to handle complaints arising from the polls.
Meanwhile, reactions have been pouring in pertaining to the outcome of the ANLCA Western Zone Chapters Elections held at the Lagos International Trade Complex, Badagry Expressway, Ojo Lagos.
While some key players in the association and the nation’s freight forwarding industry at large showered encomiums on the ANLCA National President, and the Association Electoral Commission (ASECO) for what, according to was successful polls, others are of the impression that the elections was not conducted in a free and fair manner.
One of the disqualified candidates and immediate past Chairman of the association’s Murtala Muhammed International Airport Chapter, Mr. Livinus Dada Agubuzo, was of the perception that the elections was allegedly based on favouritism.
He told SHIPS & PORTS DAILY that his disqualification from the polls is improper and questionable, alleging that certain influential persons in the association have “selected their anointed son” to replace him as chairman of the chapter.
“To me, there was no election. Much as I credit ASECO for their thorough job, still the powers-that-be have selected their anointed sons to be in position, because, probably, they are afraid of some of us that they see as threats. Secondly, why should one be disqualified for what he has not collected? It is wrong to disqualify us, because the money that we that operate at airport and we were supposed to get from NAHCO, and then remit to the association, is still in contention with CRFFN and has not been collected! Our disqualification is improper and questionable. My perception is that the powers supersede do not want me to be there and have picked their anointed son,” Agubuzo said.
Zonal Coordinator of ANLCA Western Zone, Prince Ozo Chukwurah, was of the opinion that certain external forces came to play in the elections.
Although he commended the ASECO Chairman, Alhaji Babatunde Abdulazeez, and his team for their efforts in trying to make sure the elections was devoid of manipulations, Chukwurah toldSHIPS & PORTS DAILY that Abduazeez’s efforts turned out to be in vain, as, according to him, external decisions assertively disrupted the conduct of the elections.
In his words: “I have a lot of confidence in the Association Electoral Commission (ASECO) officials, especially the Chairman of ASECO. He is a man of great integrity, but I think external forces were scattering his noble decisions. He never did a single thing wrong! All the things he did right was, along the line, short-changed with laws that were not stipulated in the ASECO guidelines. The ASECO screening and guidelines was not followed in the election. After the report from ASECO has been submitted every other thing that disturbed the election was external decisions. After the ASECO has concluded their findings about everybody, every other decision that followed, that disturbed the election, was not from ASECO. To the best of my knowledge, the ASECO is one of the best we have ever had in ANLCA.”
The National President of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Mr. Eugene Nweke; and the factiuonal National President, National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), Chief Festus Ejiofor, in separate chats with SHIPS & PORTS DAILY both gave kudos to the ANLCA National President, for, according to them, a job well done.
Nweke, who expressed joy in what he described as the success of the elections, asserted that the feat is an image booster to the corporate image of ANLCA as well as to the freight forwarding profession in Nigeria.
The NAGAFF boss said: “Indeed, it goes a long way in making bold statement that electioneering process within the freight forwarding associations has really come of age. I join other well-meaning forwarders to say good job, keep it up!”
“I heard that KLT election was cancelled based on manipulation. The result they got was more than the license they had so you can see clearly that there was rigging and the election was subsequently cancelled. So, I think Shittu is doing a great job if he can cancel election based on fraud,” Ejiofor said.
On the outcome of the ANLCA Apapa Chapter elections, Ejiofor said: “It is a welcome development. You see, Igbos (sic) were not born for Apapa. It also means that the Igbos (sic) there did not work hard. We are in a Federal Republic of Nigeria and don’t forget that we are on Yoruba land. If they can interchange all the time, it is a good omen.”
A former Chairman of the ANLCA Apapa Chapter, Chief Peter Obih, said that the election went well, noting that, although there were irregularities in the conduct of the elections, they were so minute they could be ignored.
Copyright Ships & Ports Ltd. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit given to www.shipsandports.com.ng as the source.