Contrary to the expectations of many, the Chairman of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Tincan Island Port chapter, Mr. Ojo Peter Akintoye has said that he will not violate any law of the land or use any means that could lead to the loss of lives and properties to recover the chapter secretariat currently being occupy by another faction in the association.
Akintoye who made this revelation in a chat with newsmen in Lagos on Thursday stated that the secretariat belonged to ANLCA and not his personal property adding that “if the association believed that that is her property and there is a procedure under the constitution of ANLCA on how to recover the property of the association, they will go ahead and do that.”
“But I will not violate any law of the land or use any means that lead to the loss of lives or properties because I want a secretariat, I will not do that”, he added.
He informed that there were fractions or misunderstanding in the association which according to him, metamorphosed into wrongful occupation of the ANLCA Tincan chapter secretariat by the other faction.
According to him, “When we came onboard, we were given a mandate to recover the chapter secretariat but because we are law abiding and we believe that the government is of the people, by the people and for the people, I said what is the need for me to be dragging what I know may result to fracas and eventually lead to loss life. That is why we are approaching it through the law of the land to see how the association can get her property back.”
He continued, “What caused the fractions we are talking about is the issue of who becomes the BOT Chairman. It was dragged to the extent where the tenure of those dragging the chairmanship position of the BOT elapsed. When their tenure as BOT members elapsed, some people voluntarily said that they have spent their tenure judiciously and said bye-bye honourably but some people said no, that the constitution is not binding on them which provided that when you spend the first six years and you spend another six years making it twelve years, that you can still go ahead and still have your third term. And we said it was not so. The constitution said you can contest for the position of BOT for the first and second term and that third term is not allowed and these people have contested for two terms. Prince Taiye Oyeniyi has done two terms.
“The association under the leadership of Tony Iju is not waiting for that because they are moving ahead. I am aware that you people know that we have conducted another election of the BOT last year, December 16th and a new set of BOT has emerged and they are not waiting for them. It is only that as I said earlier, the man (Tony Iju) is a gentleman, he believes in the rule of law.”
While pointing out that the election that brought him and members of his executives into office followed the constitutional provisions as spelt out by the ANLCA constitution, he however denied any knowledge of the election that brought about the leadership of the other faction led by Mojeed Mohammed.
His words, “By the virtue of the constitution of ANLCA under the election, I don’t anybody called Mojeed by name. Although I may know him as a friend but I don’t know him as Chairman of ANLCA Tincan Island chapter according to this constitution. But he is my good friend but like I said, I don’t know anything about his election, I am not aware and even if I am aware, I am sure that his election did not follow the guideline of the constitution of ANLCA.
“Nobody on his own can stand up and say he wants to make himself a Chairman, no group of people can also make anybody a Chairman except such exercise followed constitutional provisions of which I thank God on my own end as well as other members of my executive, we duly followed the constitutional procedures and we went through all the processes of election and we were duly elected as executives to pilot the affairs of the association at the Tincan Island level for the next four years.”
He however promised that there won’t be any clash or physical confrontation between the two factions as he would not allow that to happen even as he assured that the issues would soon be resolved.
“I promise myself and I can also vouch for my executives, that there won’t be any clash of interest. The beauty of my executives is that we speak with one voice and we do things together. We don’t do anything in isolation. I am very confidence that my executives are law abiding citizens and we are being guided by our constitution and our NECOM. There won’t be any issue, I promise you. But most importantly, very soon, this issue of fractions will be resolved”, he assured.
Photo: Chairman, ANLCA, Tincan Island port chapter, Mr. Ojo Peter Akintoye.
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