The election into the Governing Council of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) earlier scheduled to hold on the 16th of May, 2018 has been postponed.
Primetime Reporters recalls that in a public notice issued by the Registrar of CRFFN, Sir Mike Jukwe the sale of nomination forms would commence on Monday 23rd April, 2018 and end on Friday 4th May, 2018 while collection and submission of completed nomination forms shall be within two weeks from 9am to 4pm on Mondays to Friday at CRFFN offices in Apapa-Lagos, Port-Harcourt, Kano and Abuja adding that guidelines will be issued along with the nomination forms
Jukwe added that while screening starts from Monday 7th May, 2018 and ends on Wednesday 9th May, 2018, display of contestants’ first list holds on Friday 10th May, 2018.
According to him, election holds on Wednesday 16th May, 2018 at yet to be disclosed venue at Abuja while deadline for the submission of complaints is Friday 18th May, 2018 even as he further pointed out that decision on the complaints so received will take place on Tuesday 22nd May, 2018.
“Retreat for all the 32 members of the Governing Council and election of the Chairman and Vice Chairman in Abuja on Thursday 24th May, 2018. Inauguration of the 32 members of the Governing Council in Abuja on Friday 25th May, 2018”, he said.
However, in a telephone chat with Primetime Reporters yesterday, Jukwe disclosed that the election would no longer hold on the 16th of May as earlier scheduled rather the election will now take place on the 29th of June, 2018.
Although he did not give reasons for the postponement, Primetime Reporters’ investigations revealed that the shift may have been made possible to enable the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) perfect the withdrawal of its case against the Council before a Federal High Court in Lagos, to give room for adequate preparations for the election on the part of the freight forwarders who had earlier confessed that the election took them unawares as well as to rejig the electoral guidelines to allow for input from the stakeholders who had since faulted the guideline saying that its provisions imposed stiffer measures on the freight forwarders who may find it difficult to meet up.
With the postponement, it is now clear that the timetable earlier released by the Council will be altered as a new timetable is likely to be out soon.
It will be recalled that since the tenure of the last governing council members expired in 2012, the Council had been without a governing council leading to the inability of the Council to carry out any meaningful activity in the last six years.
Although the government of President Muhammadu Buhari earlier this year announced appointment of six council members but could not appointment a Chairman for the appointees adding that according to the Act establishing the Council, a Chairman will be elected when an election is held for the freight forwarding practitioners among whom a Chairman will be elected.
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