The National President, Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Prince Olayiwola Shittu has pledged to get the association chartered through the National Assembly in order to give vent to their profession.
Shittu who made this known while presenting his acceptance speech to mark his re-election as the National President of ANLCA on Monday also said that he would work towards getting the Federal Government to give Licensed Customs Agents commission on revenue they helped collected for it as was the case with other agencies of government involved in revenue collection.
He stated his resolve to pursue the above named two projects which according to him were key to his second term in office as the National President of the association while continue paying attention to top the welfare and capacity building of members of the association.
According to him,”I pledge to work hard, harder than before. I also pledge to reach out for those who disagreed with us so that we can have a common front and take ANLCA to a greater height”
“There are lots of work to be done and that is why we are not having a written manifesto but we are having two gigantic projects we must follow during this our second term. One of them and I pledge, is to get ANLCA chartered through the National Assembly. With that, we shall be in total control of our professional lives and we shall be guided by CEMA because that is where we belong”.
Secondly, we shall do everything we can together with the board of Trustees to get the Federal Government to also give us commission on all payments as they do to customs, they do to FIRS and so on and so forth. It is going to be a big task but we are also not going to forget our primary assignment which is welfare of members, advocacy, capacity building of members. We must also do cooperation because cooperation is what has taken us to this level”, Shittu said.
The National President who disclosed that he was overwhelmed by the show of love and support demonstrated by members of ANLCA in voting them back office pledged to work harder to achieve more for the association while promising to reach out to those aggrieved members to reconcile them to the vision and direction of the association with a view to building a virile association.
Shittu who also called for a minute silence for the victims of the bomb blast that rocked Nyanya, a suburb of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on Monday, revealed that he was dedicating his victory to the members and the Board of Trustees of ANLCA.
Speaking at the event, the Coordinator of the Board of Trustees (BOT), Alhaji Taiwo Mustapha regretted the misunderstanding that has plagued the association in the last couple of weeks tracing its origin to what he called mere misunderstanding over the election as against crisis as being presumed in some quarters.
While emphasizing that his views were not opposed to that of the other members of BOT in the minority report that was not part of the advertisement made by the BOT in a recent publication, he however harped on the need for the association to review its constitution to reflect the current realities in the association in order not to disenfranchise any member of the association in future.
He however called on the re-elected National President not to look at anyone with an opposing view prior to the elections as an enemy even as he charged him to do all he could to bring every body under one umbrella and re-unite the association.
“Mr. President Sir, having congratulated you today, I want to put it to you that the first and major task you have at hand is to re-unite everybody under one umbrella”.
“And that is why we are saying that whatever we take away from here, do not look at some BOT members as your enemies and do not look at anybody having different opinion that at the end of the day, there should be disunity within us”.
“What matters at the end of the day is for us to be able to re-unite ourselves”, Mustapha advised.
Reacting to the advice,the National President, Prince Olayiwola Shittu reassured that he would do all that was necessarily to resolve the problem between the BOT and the National Executive Committee (NECOM) but insisted that those who had chosen the path of litigation and were averse to reconciliatory overtures should be allowed to wait for the outcome of the court.
He noted that in the past, they had not followed strictly the provisions of the ANLCA constitution in a bid to cooperate with one another and to engender peace within the association, a practice which according to him had seen many abuses adding that if they had to move forward, the trend must change.
“As long as we work according to the constitution of which I have been sworn in today, I promise I shall defend the constitution vigorously till the end of my tenure”, Shittu assured.
Prince Shittu who was the sole candidate for the office of the President in the election polled a total of 56 votes out of the 57 voters that came forward to vote to seal his victory in the election that was generally peaceful.
Also re-elected were the National Vice President, Emenike Kingsley Nwokeoji who scored 55 votes out of the 57 votes as well as the National Secretary, Dr. Emmanuel Ogu Opara who got 55 votes to remain as the National Secretary.
Others were the National Financial Secretary, Dada Livinus Agubuzo who polled a total of 54 votes and Alhaji Bojuri Akinsola who had 56 votes to emerge as the National Treasurer.
Meanwhile, Sir John Alred Ofobuike polled a total of 28 votes to defeat the incumbent, Prince Ozo Chukwura who garnered a total of 18 vote to emerge the Zonal Coordinator, Western Zone while Alhaji Liasu Oyenkanguwho was a sole candidate polled a total of 36 votes out of 46 votes to emerge the Secretary of the zone.
Also, Chief Dennis Ejikeme Okwu retained his position as the Eastern Zonal Coordinator after beating his only opponent in the election, Barr. Raymond Oyimba by 8 votes to 4.
All the newly elected officers has since been sworn in by the National Legal Adviser of the association, Barr. Emmanuel Chekwube Osonwa who sworn in the National President who in turn sworn in other officers.
Only two out of the nine BOT members namely; Alhaji Taiwo Mustapha and Bayo Azeez were present at the election venue.
