The President of Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Alhaji Olayiwola Shittu, on Wednesday
denied the involvement of members of his association in the incident that disrupted the collection of practitioners’ operating fees at Seme border recently.
denied the involvement of members of his association in the incident that disrupted the collection of practitioners’ operating fees at Seme border recently.
Shittu also said that his association was opposed to equal sharing arrangement with smaller associations of the 35 per cent share of the collection.
Shittu who spoke with members of the maritime press at the National Secretariat of the Maritime Reporters’ Association of Nigeria (MARAN) in Apapa, Lagos was reacting to allegations last week by four other freight associations under the aegis of the Concerned Registered Freight Forwarding Associations (CRFFA) that his association masterminded the recent disruption of the collection process at the Seme Border.
Operatives of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding (CRFFN) were allegedly manhandled and their operation vehicle destroyed during the effort to collect the practicing fees.
CRFFA had called on the Federal Government to take necessary steps to de-register ANLCA as punishment.
Shittu challenged the four associations to show proof that those who beat up the operatives and destroyed their vehicles were ANLCA members.
Shittu challenged the four associations to show proof that those who beat up the operatives and destroyed their vehicles were ANLCA members.
He regretted that in carrying out its duties, the CRFFN created a lacuna by registering associations and persons who, he said, fell short of the basic criteria for the job.
Noting that most of the associations in the industry were splinter groups formed out of ANLCA to advance personal and pecuniary interests, he argued, ANLCA still maintains a premier position that can never be taken away.
