As the dust raised by the collection of the Practitioners’ Operating Fees (POF) of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) that saw the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) and the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) pointing fingers at each other is yet to settle, the two associations are once again set on a war of words, this time at the chapter level.
This is as a result of the inability of the two associations to agree over the identity of the attacker who attacked the freight forwarders’ operational stand at the Tincan Island Container Terminal (TICT) following the suspension of the planned picketing of the terminal on Monday by the ANLCA members of the Tincan Island chapter.
Primetime Reporters was earlier informed that NAGAFF office at Tincan Island Ports was attacked by unknown hoodlums for refusing to join in the picketing exercise carried out by ANLCA but on investigation, it gathered that not only NAGAFF was attacked but also the other four freight associations that operate at the stand.
When contact, the NAGAFF Chairman, Tincan Island Chapter, Mr. Azubuike Ekweozor informed Primetime Reporters that it was not the association’s office that was attacked but its help desk stand at the TICT adding that other freight forwarding associations also have their stands at the said location.
Ekweozor recalled there was a lock out of the staff of the TICT earlier in the day by those he could not identify as according to him, “ I don’t know who did the locking at the gate, the TICT gate”, adding that the staff that were coming out from the terminal were locked inside while those coming to take over from them were locked outside.
“Now, when at the end of the day, the gate was opened by TICT, owners of the terminal with the help of the Police and the Nigerian Ports Authority, someone that cannot be identified came and started destroying the associations’ properties, that is the umbrellas and chairs”.
“Now, Police came and the terminal operator came, arrested the young man, queried him and asked him why he was doing what he was doing. He had no answer to it. So, for peace to reign, they led the young man outside the gate. So that is what happened today”, he said.
When asked if the attack was connected to the picketing earlier planned against the terminal, he had this to say,” it may be connected with the threat to go on strike, it may be connected with it but I cannot vividly confirm that it has to do with the strike action. But for the gate to be locked and was finally opened means there was an attempt to picket TICT”.
Also giving an account of what happened, the Secretary of NAGAFF, Tincan Island Ports Chapter, Deacon Dike Kalu said,” After the confusion this morning, somebody just walked in and started destroying the umbrellas our people used in sitting, not only our own, both our own stand and that of the other associations”.
When asked if he could confirm that it was ANLCA member that attacked the operational base for refusing to join in the picketing earlier in the day, he said, “Well, until the Police prove otherwise because I was not there rather, my people told me that the fellow attacked all the people there, all the associations that operate at the terminal. They said they wanted to kill him but the Police came and rescued him. I believe he is supposed to be in the custody of the Police”.
On the success or otherwise of the picketing, Kalu stated,” I don’t think ANLCA will single handedly picket any terminal without the rest of the associations because they tried to do that and they were overpowered by the government agencies and the terminal operators”.
Reacting, the Secretary of ANLCA, Tincan Island Ports Chapter, Evang. Chuks David Kanikwu dismissed NAGAFF’s claim saying that “this propaganda by NAGAFF and co should stop”.
Kanikwu disclosed that the association’s (ANLCA) leadership withdrew itself from the terminal the moment it started talking with the authorities concerned on issues leading to picketing TICT.
“I virtually and my chairman called our members and we went on a meeting. The news of, even our chairs, ANLCA’s seats were broken. If they don’t know what they are talking, the labour people who TICT engaged, they are labour, you know they are under their (TICT) pay and they asked them to make sure that the picketing did not succeed”.
“So, when we left, I heard a report in the office that they broke our chairs, broke every NAGAFF’s chairs and whatever. So, which young man was it that came to break the chairs that they don’t know? Would they say it is ANLCA that broke the chairs?”, Kanikwu said.
When told that NAGAFF’s account had it that the said young man had been arrested by the Police, he said,” Then let the Police do their job and find out who that young man is. You see, these people are rabble rousers and propagandists. How ct was ANLCA an somebody wake up and say he doesn’t know who broke those chairs? Are you now inferring that broke the chairs?”
Meanwhile, efforts to get the Police and the leadership of the labour at the TICT failed as they could not speak to Primetime Reporters as at the time of filing this report.
