The Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) and the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) on Friday denied involvement of their respective associations and their members in the allegation of the collection of the suspended transaction fee at the nation’s ports.
The denial from the two associations came on the heels of reports credited to a Maritime industry based newspaper alleging that the two associations blatantly defied the regulatory agencies’ orders to all the freight forwarding associations to suspend collection of the said fee until further notice.
The medium which named the Ports and terminals where this illegal collection going on to include; the Onne Ports in Rivers State, Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja and the PTML terminal, both in Lagos was also quoted to have authoritatively reported that NAGAFF and ANLCA were the chief culprit in the act.
It would be recalled that the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) and lately the Nigerian Shippers’ Council respectively had issued order stopping the collection of that fee across the nation’s ports.
Speaking to Primetime Reporters in Lagos, the Chairman, NAGAFF, PTML Chapter, Chief Goodluck Onunji denied knowledge of the existence of transaction fee in the chapter not to talk of its collection.
Onunji observed that he was aware that there was an order from the CRFFN putting on hold the collection of the fee across the nation’s ports adding that if anybody was collecting the money, such a person was doing so at his own risk.
He however noted that NAGAFF had never at anytime appointed anybody to collect the said money on its behalf and would not do so even as he said that the association as a law abiding one would not go contrary to the laws.
According to him,” I can definitely tell you that NAGAFF where I belong don’t have anything to do with the transaction fee in PTML here where I am the Chairman. If people are collecting transaction fee, I don’t know. It is what somebody is interested in that he should know”.
The NAGAFF boss further exonerated the men of his task force from such an illegal collection as according to him,” they are there on a different mission and not for the collection of the transaction fee for themselves or for NAGAFF. Anybody that claims to collect such fee on behalf of NAGAFF is not a member of NAGAFF and anybody assuming that NAGAFF is doing that is on his own”.
Also speaking, the Chairman, ANLCA PTML, Prince Bola Adediran stated that the chapter was not involved in anyway in the collection of any transaction fee from either their members or from any other person in the chapter.
Adediran disclosed that anyone who wants to register as member of the association always do so at the National secretariat of the association adding that nobody collects any money from anyone at the chapter.
He however revealed that it was only during the electioneering period that the chapter collects money from those who were not yet registered as members in order to qualify them to participate in the election as according to him,”those who are not yet registered as ANLCA members will come and register because, if you are not a member of ANLCA, you cannot vote or be voted for in ANLCA elections. This is the only time something like that happened. So, it is not true”.
