The Minister of Transportation, Rt. Hon. Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi has given the leadership of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) two weeks to resolve its differences with the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN).
It will be recalled that ANLCA had been at loggerhead with the CRFFN and other freight forwarding associations for over eight months now over the Council’s plan to collect the Practitioners’ Operating Fee (POF) from all registered freight forwarders operating in the Nigerian seaport, which will eventually be shared between CRFFN and the freight forwarding associations which ANLCA objected to on the ground that there was no elected Governing Board for the Council arguing that the Registrar who is an employee of the Council had no powers to authorize the collection of the POF.
Dissatisfied with CRFFN’s resolve to go on with the collection of the fee, ANLCA headed to the Federal High court in Lagos to stop the Council or its privy from collecting the fee from its members or using security agencies to coerce its members to pay the said fee.
But speaking today at the opening ceremony of a 2-day Conference organized by the Maritime Correspondents’ Organization of Nigeria (MARCON) in Lagos, the Minister directed the leadership of ANLCA to meet and resolve the disagreement it was having with the Council failing which he would speak with the Comptroller-General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali (Rtd.) to start a fresh registration of all the customs agents.
He added that one of the requirements for the said registration would be that all Customs agents to be so registered and issued license by the customs must have registered with the CRFFN saying that that was the law.
According to him,” Let me talk to the customs agents, there is a law that you people are breaking and that law has to do with an agency in my Ministry, the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN). I don’t know if the leadership of the customs agents is here, meet with them and resolve your differences if not, the next step I am going to take, I have already told him (Dr. Aniebonam), is to speak with the Comptroller-General of Customs to start fresh registration of all customs agents and one of the requirements is that you must have resolved all your differences with them (CRFFN), if you don’t, we will have a fresh registration and the requirement will be you should go and register there before you come and register as customs agents with the customs. That is the law.
“But if you don’t want to go through the process of having to register afresh with the customs, I don’t have time and because of that, we resolved that and comply with the law, you people will continue to do your work with the customs because I am in a hurry, I have two weeks to resolve that.
(To Dr. Farinto) Call them meeting and ask them to go and do that, if not, myself and the Comptroller-General of customs have agreed to meet and all I will tell him is to go and announce or publish in the papers that all customs agents must come for fresh registration and one of the requirements is to comply with the law”.
However, Amaechi who is the former Governor of Rivers State also directed the President of MARCON, Mr. Ismail Aniemu to get the President of the Maritime Reporters’ Association of Nigeria (MARAN), the President of the League of Maritime Editors and that of the Non-Align group for a meeting in his office at Abuja on Monday next week adding that he cannot accommodate different associations in the name of the press.
“I want the President of MARCON to kindly get the President of MARAN and the League and that of the Non-Align, I want them to meet with me next week Monday by 10.am in Abuja so that they resolve their differences because we can’t have maritime sector having all sorts of associations in the name of press”, he said.
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