There was a mild drama Wednesday at the Golden Tulip Hotel, Festac Town in Lagos, venue of a one day stakeholders forum on the maritime industry with the theme,” Seamless Importation: Building Stakeholders Synergy and Fostering Trade Without Compromising Standards”, organized by the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) when the two factional Presidents of the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA) Mr. Lucky Amiwero and Chief Festus Ejiofor grounded the forum to a halt for about ten minutes.
Trouble started when the Master of Ceremony introduced Chief Festus Ejiofor as the President of NCMDLCA, an action which did not go down well with Mr. Lucky Amiwero and his group prompting them to shout down at the MC thereby causing rowdiness in the venue.
Even when the second MC, Dr. Obicee Okonkwor aware of the mistake that had been made by his colleague tried to arrest the situation by introducing Mr. Amiwero as the President, the matter became worse as Mr. Amiwero refused to go up to the high table on the ground the Chief Ejiofor should be asked to leave the table.
All the pleas made to Mr. Amiwero to the extent that the Director-General of SON, Dr. Joseph Ikem Odumodu opted for him to sit by his other side failed to yield any result as Amiwero maintained that,” he cannot sit with a man who cannot respect himself.
It only took the intervention of the Senior Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on maritime Services, Mr. Leke Oyewole who after speaking to Mr. Amiwero in the capacity of the President’s representative at the occasion got the situation under control prompting Mr. Amiwero to sit on the other side of the high table so as avoid contact with Chief Ejiofor who by this time was sitting on the right hand side of the high table.
As a result, throughout the duration of the event, nobody dared observe protocol prior to his or her speech or better still, one would acknowledge the DG SON and Senior Special Assistant to the President so as not to allow the ugly experience in the beginning of the event to repeat itself.
It will be recalled that Mr. Lucky Amiwero who is the founding President of NCMDLCA has been having a running battle over the soul of the council with Chief Festus Ejiofor who is equally laying claim to the leadership of the Council leading to series of court cases some of which are yet to be dispensed off.
Wednesday’s Experience at the stakeholders’ forum in Lagos seemed to be the height of the tussle.
