The National President, National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), Mr. Lucky Amiwero has faulted the directive of the Minister of Transportation, Rt. Hon. Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi to licensed customs agents asking them to make up with the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) within two weeks or face fresh registration exercise with the Nigeria Customs service (NCS).
It will be recalled that the Minister had on Thursday last week at the opening ceremony of a 2-day conference organized by the Maritime Correspondents’ Organization of Nigeria (MARCON) directed the customs agent to resolve their issues with the CRFFN with two weeks or he would force them to undergo fresh registration adding that he had scheduled to meet with the Comptroller-General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali soon.
But speaking in an interview with Primetime Reporters in Lagos on Monday, Amiwero submitted that the Minister was not properly briefed on the status of the Council adding that the Minister erred in law by making such a statement.
He argued that there was no Council for the regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria since the Governing Board of the Council had been dissolved since 2012, a position which he said was reinforced by a letter from the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation which instructed that an employee of the Council has no powers to carry on with the activities of the Council without a properly constituted Governing Board in place.
He said,” Well, there is no Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria; the Council was dissolved since 2012. I think the Minister erred by making that kind of statement. When you say council, that means the body that is in-charge of implementing the functions of the council. So, there is no council for now and that was energized by a letter from the Secretary to the Government of the Federation which instructed that you cannot run the council with the employee of the council and we were invited in Abuja by the IG on the issue and the issue was trashed and the IG advised them, the man who presided that he cannot operate where there is no council. So, I expect the Minister to be properly briefed”.
The NCMDLCA boss further posited that CRFFN was not created to regulate licensed customs agents saying that it was a different organization of its own whose function it was to arrange for carriage of goods across the international frontiers even as he contended that there was nowhere in the world where customs agents were regulated by the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding.
“The Licensed customs agents are regulated under the Ministry of Finance. Section 152-156 authorizes us to operate and what we operate is under the CEMA (Customs and Excise Management Act). We are involved in revenue collection, process, procedure, our job is classification, interpretation, treatment and application of the rules. Our job is not to arrange for the carriage of goods, we are cargo doctors, we are trade procedure experts, not transporters, we are involved in import, export and manufacturing, we are excise traders”, he said.
He also maintained that associations were not members of the council since they were not included in the governing board of CRFFN noting that associations like the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) had no right to talk like it was saying.
He continued,” The Minister has limited power, he doesn’t have power to do anything. The Minister cannot talk when the Board is not there, the Minister cannot talk to the public, the Minister talks to the Board. Look at it (showing the section in the CRFFN Act), the Minister may give direction the council not to the public, what he has done there is contravention of the law. The power of the Minister in CRFFN Act compared to that of the Minister of Finance in CEMA is limited. The Minister has no right to tel the people this is what I want to do.
“If you bring NIMASA Act, it will tell you that the Minister has overriding power but this one (CRFFN Act) it says that the Minister shall give direction of general character to the council but not to any individual or person. To who has the Minister spoken to? Is it to the public or to the Board? Is there any Council for the Minister to speak to? If you read through section 12, for everything the Minister does, it must go through the Council, so, the council for now cannot perform”.
Amiwero who is also the Managing Director of Eyis Resources Limited denied that licensed customs agents were not mentioned in the CRFFN Act explaining that what was contained therein was freight forwarders even as he claimed that NCMDLCA was not a member of CRFFN.
According to him,” National Council is not even a member, the people you see there are those criminals that are facing criminal proceedings at the court of law, Ejiofor and all the rest. Do you see National Council as a member of CRFFN? We took them to court, we won them first and second, at the High Court, the Appeal Court and we went back to the lower court, the lower court said there was no body to give the judgment because their time has expired. So, if they give any judgment, that judgment will be null and void”.
He concluded by saying that if the federal government makes the mistake and bring CRFFN in, that would mean that customs is finished as according to him,” you are going to bring in criminals who can go there and destroy the industry”, wondering how the customs would control CRFFN.
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It is expected of the Hon minister of transport to be well informed about his duties before going public.