As controversy over who has the legitimate mandate as the Chairman, Board of Trustees (BOT) of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) rages on, the Eastern Zone of the association has thrown its weight behind the Chief Henry Njoku as the legitimate and subsisting Chairman of the ANLCA BOT.
A statement issued on Thursday in Port-Harcourt by the ANLCA Eastern Publicity Team, maintained that the advice of Chief Peter Chike Obi to the effect that ANLCA chapters and zones should disregard the recent illegal attempt by desperate elements to hijack the leadership of the association’s Board of Trustees had their support.
It noted that the illegality of the recent desperate move to hijack the leadership of ANLCA Board of Trustees would be better appreciated from the fact that the arrowhead of the hijack, Alhaji Taiwo Mustapher, was not a Trustee of ANLCA, owing to the fact that his name had not been submitted to the Corporate Affairs Commission as an ANLCA Trustee as the law demanded adding that “same thing apply to the names of some other members of the other desperadoes”.
“We view it as utter ignorance of the membership of ANLCA for anybody to say that Chief Obi is not a member of ANLCA, we reiterate that ANLCA membership is corporate and so, no individual is a member. To the best of our knowledge, Chief Obi’s company, Seamap Nigeria Limited was and still is, a bona fide member of ANLCA and it is the prerogative of the company to decide who represents her in ANLCA.
“It is absurd and unknown to any Civil Society, including corporate organizations that members would be urged to be loyal to any member of the Board of Trustees other than the President and the National Executive Committee (NECOM), who run the day to day administration of the association.
“We agree with the legal principle that one cannot put something on nothing, so, the purported meeting where Alhaji Taiwo Mustapha was said to have been elected was illegitimate, being not convened by the legitimate BOT Chairman, Chief Henry Njoku. The process was flawed and so the outcome is also flawed.
“Our support for Chief Henry Njoku as ANLCA Board of Trustees Chairman is born out of the fact that Chief Njoku is running a tenured office, which has not expired”, the statement said.
It will be recalled that Alhaji Taiwo Mustapha had last week announced his taking over as the new ANLCA BOT Chairman following the expiration of a 90 day transition period granted Chief Henry Njoku to conclude his hand over formalities having been on the saddle for ten and in accordance with the succession arrangement within the association, a development Chief Henry Njoku had since faulted.
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