The National President of the Association of Registered Freight Forwarders Nigeria (AREFFN) has recounted how he was detained at the Zone 2 headquarters of the Nigeria Police and was subsequently made to write and endorse a document portraying him as willingly recognizing the legitimacy of the newly appointed interim executives led by Alhaji Bala Lawan Daura as a condition for releasing him at the station.
Ukor who recalled how he was detained for two days at the station, said he was at a meeting with Alhaji Daura faction in Lagos where he took time out to explain to them how the money he received from Daura was utilized by his administration when all of a sudden, the meeting took a different dimension leading to the faction wanting him to recognize the position of Alhaji Bala Lawan Daura as the interim National President of the association, which he refused to do.
“I was detained for two days at Zone 2 headquarters, as I told you, when we had our meeting, I told them everything, how the money went during the meeting. They said they were calling Bala to come, that Bala is the president, I said Bala is not the president, I will never recognize Bala as the president until we have an election. They pressurized me and said that I must recognize Bala and I said Bala is not the president. I am still the president until I conduct an election.
“It was then that Chidi went out and made a call. Few minutes later, policemen came and they said, that is the man and the policemen told me that I am wanted at the police station and I said okay, we are having a meeting, when we are through, I will report to the station.
“After the meeting, I went to the station to find out what the issue was, they said your people said they are on their way to come and talk to me. After explaining to the police, they now told me to go out and discuss with them (Daura faction) and we came out to discuss and I asked them what they wanted and they said that they will let me know when they come tomorrow. I thought all of us were going, I didn’t know I was going to be detained. I had to sleep there at the station until evening of the following day.
“So, when they eventually came, I asked them what they want and they said that they wanted me to recognize that they are now the executive and I asked, it is not that I stole your money. And they said no, it was for me to recognize their executive. I told them there is no problem. I wrote the one that I wrote and they said no, they brought their own letter heading paper and said I should write at the police station that I recognized them and I did and advised them to come with their members to the National Secretariat so that I can give them my fatherly blessing. I congratulate you but you are not yet executive until you come to get a fatherly blessing. My intention was to invite all the other members when they come but they didn’t come”.
He however disclosed that the first thing they did upon leaving the Zone 2 Headquarters was to announce the dissolution of all the chapter executive of the association, an action which he said he objected to on the ground that they lacked powers to dissolve elected executive more so when he was still the National President of AREFFN.
Send your news, press releases/articles to info@primetimereporters.com. Also, follow us on Twitter @reportersinfo and on Facebook on facebook.com/primetimereporters or call the editor on 07030661526, 08053908817.
