The Counsel representing the Incorporated Trustees of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Barr. Okwudili Alagbu has given reasons why the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) may not diligently prosecute the suit it instituted against Mohammed Bashir, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Transport and 11 others.
Alagbu who was speaking in an exclusive interview with Primetime Reporters in Lagos recently said that ANLCA being the plaintiff and having seen the barrage of objections raised by the defendants on the matter, most of them very weighty and formidable discovered that it could not move forward.
According to him,” For instance, looking at the matter, you don’t need to be a lawyer to know that the court does not have jurisdiction on the matter because there is nothing like the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents in the eye of the law. Even ANLCA as the plaintiff is not properly constituted because there is nothing like Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents, what it should be is the incorporated Trustees of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents.
“So, the plaintiff is not even a person known to law and it cannot be a person known to law if it is appearing like this. There is nothing in the face of it to show that it is an incorporated association. So, on that score alone, that matter is incompetent. You see, there is no proper party initiating this suit. That is one on the other side, before you talk about a whole lot of other issues which we may not be able to go into because it will become subjudice and we have exchanged pleadings.
“The point is that there are not less than six preliminary objections, in fact, practically all the parties that entered appearance have preliminary objections and I can tell you that on the last count up until today, they have not responded to any preliminary objection which appears they have no defense, they have no response to our preliminary objections and I am quite sure that the counsel beat a tactical retreat there. He knew that moving forward was going to be death, so he decided to beat a tactical retreat”.
Speaking earlier on the day’s hearing, the NAGAFF’s counsel disclosed that when the matter which was supposed to be hearing for all pending applications, most of which were preliminary objections challenging the jurisdiction of the court to hear the matter was called up and all the parties entered appearances through their counsels, sought to move their applications since they were slated for hearing on that day, the counsel representing ANLCA, Barr. Ayodele Olaniyi Esq. surprised everyone by telling the court that his client was making efforts to settle.
“So, we were surprised to hear that because nobody has approached any of us for settlement and when I say us, I mean the real parties in the matter instead he was talking about the inspector-General of Police and the Attorney –General of the Federation as the people they want to approach. He didn’t even say they have approached because if he says he want to settle the matter out of court, then he should be able to show some practical steps he has taken for instance he should have written to the other parties, that is the normal procedure.
“He will write an invitation or a letter of intent to the other parties showing your intention to settle. We were not shown any such letter; there was no mention of concrete step that has been taken even in the direction of meeting the Inspector-General of Police and the Attorney-General of the Federation. I mean it is a speculative information and we objected to that and likely too because the matter was slated for hearing and since the court was disposed to hear us and in the absence of any other application or motion arresting the hearing of the matter, we were supposed to go on afterall settlement out of court should be by consent of both parties not something that any party should force down the throat of the other party.
“So, the situation I got from the whole thing is that ANLCA which is the plaintiff having seen the barrage of objections, most of them very weighty and formidable and they found out that they could not move forward”, he said.
On whether his client will cooperate with ANLCA if it eventually reach out to them for an out of court settlement, he has this to say, “if they approach us for settlement, of course, this is association matter, my client, NAGAFF will look at their offer for settlement, we will consider it and then respond appropriately”.
When contacted, the National Publicity Secretary (NPS) of ANLCA, Dr. Kayode Farinto who initially did not respond to calls and text message put across to him in relation to the day’s hearing by Primetime Reporters but later replied through our social media network said,” ANLCA is not seeking out of court settlement. It must be the figment of their imagination. ANLCA has high moral ground to continue the case. Meanwhile, to put the record straight, the case will come up for hearing next month.
“When the Judge said we should maintain the status quo ante, it simply means that we should maintain our initial position”.
Also speaking on the matter, the National President, Association of Registered Freight Forwarders Nigeria (AREFFN), one of the defendants in the suit, Dr. Frank Ukor disclosed that ANLCA did not say it wanted out of court settlement but that its Attorney had said that he wanted to brief the AGF and IGP who were not in the office when the matter was instituted.
He said,” the IG was there of course but the AGF had not been appointed. ANLCA was only playing for time. The other associations reluctantly agreed to ANLCA’s request for the sake of peace. One thing was however made clear, the status quo remains. By this it is understood that the collection of POF (Practitioners Operating Fee) by CRFFN should continue until the matter is determined.
“The snag here is that CRFFN is not collecting but ANLCA is. The others then argued that all collections must be accounted for at the end of the day”.
Meanwhile, the matter was adjourned till the 16th of March, 2016 for hearing.
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