The Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) has said that it would soon come up with a deadline when all the monies owed it by the individual freight forwarders and Corporate Organizations should be turned in failing which it would apply appropriate sanctions.
The Registrar of the Council, Sir Mike Jukwe who disclosed this in a parley with Journalists in Lagos admitted that freight forwarders and the freight forwarding associations owed the Council adding that the council had resolved that all the backlog of dues owed it must be cleared.
“Well, at a point, not much was happening and that I wouldn’t want to sit down here and tell you why these monies are not being paid. They are subscriptions, they are not major kind of monies but they are monies that make you committed to a body and make you feel that you are part and parcel of the body so that what is due for you from the body, you get it and what is due to the body from you, the body also gets it”.
“It is not only CRFFN. We have discovered also that in many other statutory bodies, sometimes people defaults. But we have resolved that they will be in good financial standing, they will pay their money which is more important to us and I am telling you that they will pay. But if the monies are not paid, there are sanctions, we will apply sanctions”, Jukwe said.
When asked what the sanctions will be, he listed them as follows,” we can deregister you from being a practitioner when you don’t pay what you are supposed to pay, we can also come up with other penalties, some of the benefits that you are entitled to, you will not have it such as the Group Insurance Scheme. You will not be party to it if you did not pay”.
“So, the year 2015, we will soon come up with a time when all these monies should be turned in and those who failed to do so, the penalties will be appropriated”, he added.
Reacting, the National President, National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Dr. Eugene Nweke said that the freight forwarders and associations had resolved to work together with the Council so as not to allow the profession to decay.
He said,” you can see what is happening, that the terminal operators came here, our ports were concessioned to them, some people, shipping lines, they came here, all we end up getting is we Nigerians being short changed, all because we were not properly positioned”.
“I believe in this Council, that is why there is the need for us to come together to fight what is called our common enemy”.
