Following plans by some members of the Chief Festus Ejiofor led faction of the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLACA) to conduct elections by the end of this month in order to usher in a new administration, the Deputy National President of the Council, Comrade Ben Ndee has called for government intervention to quell the looming crisis that is bound to cripple the Nigerian ports and by extension the Nigerian economy.
Ndee who made this call in an interview with Primetime Reporters on Friday in reaction to a call by the founding members of the council on the Registrar of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN), Sir Mike Jukwe to prevail on Chief Ejiofor to step down as the National President of the Council said those behind the call were trying to create confusion where members would start killing themselves over nonexistent positions.
He stated that there were subsisting cases both at the Igbosere Magistrate Court and at the Federal High Court, all in Lagos over the leadership of the Council with the Lucky Amiwero led faction, it would be fool hardy for anybody to contemplate conducting or contesting any election in the council until those cases were dispensed off.
According to him,” We are in court, several courts for that matter, we are in Igbosere Magistrate Court, we are in the Federal High Court even though we have won several of these cases. Whoever wants to conduct elections or contest elections should hold on until these cases are dispensed off, after which there should be an election and those willing to contest should come and contest.
“But what they are doing now is fraudulent, they just want to collect money from the people and eat their money by telling them they are giving them nonexistent positions. The port is the gateway, the next oil in this country and anything that will engender crisis in the port, government should step in. that is what these people are trying to do. They have done it in 2012 at NAGAFF Village, they are still doing the same thing again at the same NAGAFF village and Aniebonam is part of this rubbish.
“I want to use this opportunity to call on government to intervene immediately because what they are trying to do will set the port ablaze. What they are trying to do is to create confusion where members will come and start killing themselves like what happened under Chief Uzoije Ukaumuanna back then when they were shooting themselves in Tincan ports, at the end of the day, more than 20 people were killed. We witnessed all these things inside the ports and the security of the ports was threatened.
“The earlier government steps into this thing the better, nobody has monopoly of violence and we have been trying in every possible way to prevail on our members to calm them down because this thing is actually not what it should be”.
When reminded that part of the grouse the founding members said they had against Chief Ejiofor was that he had done more than six years as the President of the council without any election to his credit and his inability to convene meetings of the council, Ndee had this to say.” Let me correct that impression, I, comrade Ben Uche Ndee and others contested this election on the 29th of July, 2009. That was when this administration came onboard and we have had several cases ever since then and some of them are still subsisting, we have won several and some are still hanging.
“So, if you check that time and in view of the matters that are in court, how do you justify an election? And the bone of contention in court is the issue you are equally canvassing for. For God’s sake, nobody will ever try such a thing unless these cases are concluded.
It will be recalled that the National Secretary General of the Council, Chief Festus Ukwu had on the 29th February, 2016 written to the Registrar of CRFFN, Jukwe notifying him of the resolution of the founding members of the council in conjunction with the members of the council’s Board of Trustees (BoT) to conduct elections into the executive positions of the council by the end of March 2016 saying that the current National President, Chief Ejiofor had be at the helm of the affairs of the council for more than six claiming it was against the spirit of democracy.
Ukwu further accused Chief Ejiofor of corruption, inability to conduct elections into the various chapters of the Council across Nigeria, converting the properties of the council for his personal use among other things promising the Registrar of their intention to notify him of the yet to be fixed date of the election to enable him attend and witness the election.
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