…As AREFFN prepares for showdown
The Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) may soon attract the hammer of the Minister of Transportation, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi for flouting his directive to all the freight forwarding associations to stop forthwith, the collection of all forms of fees at the ports.
This is because an evident gathered by Primetime Reporters showed that the association has continued in the collection of practicing fee at the Murtala Mohammed Airport through the terminal operator, Nigerian Aviation Handling Company PLC (NAHCO) on behalf of ANLCA.
A receipt of the payment made available to our correspondent by the National President of the Association of Registered Freight Forwarders of Nigerian (AREFFN), Dr. Frank Ukor indicated that a total of Five Hundred and Forty (N540) Naira ANLCA fees was collected from the Homeland Integrated on the 28th of June, 2016.
Speaking on the development, Dr. Ukor stated that the said fee was not being collected from ANLCA members alone but also from members of other associations operating at the airport including his members, members of ANLCA and even from those who did not belong to any association.
He observe that since AREFFN has opened and operated office at the airport, it was normal that ANLCA should give them a share from the fee so far collected, at least for his members adding that if they don’t, they (AREFFN) would stop the collection.
According to him,” We went to NAHCO and said to them, you people are collecting this money and saying that it is ANLCA money, it is not ANLCA money, it is the money that belongs to all freight forwarders and all agents. If you insist on collecting this fee for ANLCA members, you should collect for our members too and we will direct our members on how to pay and you collect for us and they said no, that that was not the instruction given to them. And I said to them it is an illegal collection, that government has said it is an illegal collection, are you aware that government has stopped the collection, they said no they are not aware.
“We wrote them a lot a letter to stop this collection because you cannot be collecting from our members and be giving it to another person, they refused to take the letter saying it is their head office that can address that. So, we sent the letter through DHL, that was about two months ago. That was why I went to NAHCO office yesterday to verify and they said the MD went to South Africa and that he just probably resumed and cannot see anybody. But insisted they were not collecting anything but I want to prove to them that they are still collecting at the airport.
“As I came back, the Chairman just called me and said that they have just gotten one and they scanned it to me, that was why I printed it out to show the people because they are saying they are not collecting. This is to prove that they are still collecting.
“It is not only ANLCA people that need money, everybody needs money to run his or her association. How can you be collecting from my members and then refusing to give me?
On whether or not the collection did not contravene the Minister of Transportation’s directive to all freight forwarding associations to stop collection of any fee from the ports, he said,” The Minister has said stop but as you can see now, they are still collecting. If they are collecting and we keep quiet, they will continue to collect the money and use it oppress us because that is what they are doing. They are collecting the money and using it to pay their lawyer and we don’t have money to pay our lawyer. They included us in their suit, so, how do we get the money to pay our lawyers?
“Definitely, we have to look for how we can get money to service all these expenses. I will call Farinto (ANLCA’s Publicity Secretary) and show him this and say, do you want us to publish this or do you carry us along? If he says they will carry us along, we will soft pedal, if not, we will resist it”.
Responding, the National Publicity Secretary of ANLCA, Dr. Kayode Farinto denied any knowledge of any collection being done by his association in any chapter adding that there was nothing like that.
“There is nothing like that. We are not collecting any money at the airport, that is what I can tell you. Anybody that is showing you receipt, take that receipt and go and show it to the Chairman of the Airport chapter.
“So, there is nothing like collection at the airport at all, I can vouch for that. People will always say a lot of things”, he said.
It will be recalled that the Minister of Transportation through a circular he issued sometime in March this year ordered a stop to any forms of collection being carried out by any freight forwarding association in the maritime sector following disagreement over payment of the Practitioners’ Operating Fee (POF) yet to be collected by the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN), a directive many associations have claimed to have complied with.
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