A former National President of the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Sir Ernest Elochukwu has said that there is no truth in the submissions made by a former Zonal Coordinator, West of the association, Prince Ozo Chukwura as reasons for the ongoing crisis in ANLCA.
Recall that Prince Chukwura had in a chat with newsmen recently declared that the crisis in ANLCA was caused by the desire of one of the aggrieved parties to take revenge of the perceived wrong done by the other group.
He said in the course of his interaction with the aggrieved parties, he found out that the motivating factor behind one of the warring groups was to destabilise the administration of Tony Iju to avenge the wrong they perceived he did to them.
“Chief Elochukwu called me by my name and said ‘Ozomena, We ( he refers to the remaining five members of the board who the court said were not recognised but later got registered on one side and the other three before Aare Sanni Shittu died) are like bulls in the Chinese shop. You can interpret the idiomatic expression he used.
“He said their main aim is to destroy Tony Iju’s s administration, that he would not be relevant. They felt Tony Iju destroyed the little tenure they had as the BOT members through what they regarded as his insincerity of purpose when he was called upon to intervene in the crisis in the BOT then. They felt that by his attitude which they regarded as playing pranks, Tony allowed the crisis in the BOT to fester to his own advantage which eventually truncated their tenure.
“So they felt what they are doing was a tit for tat, a payback time. That is exactly what is happening. Any other things you are hearing or they are telling you is secondary. That is at the core of the present crisis. This is the exact word Elochukwu used, that they are like bulls in the Chinese shop. You can quote me”, declared Ozo Chukwura.
Responding, Sir Elochukwu opined that Chukwura and “his co-travelers” who held sway at various chapters during his tenure as the National President of ANLCA had quickly forgotten some of the lessons of leadership which he taught them, principal of which is “that once integrity goes away from a leader, he becomes nothing but like a chaff remaining after the corn has been sieved.”
He accused Chukwura of bringing “a new low to the ignoble idea of falsehood when he said I told him that the five trustees were fighting Tony Iju for whatever he had imagined.”
According to him, “It’s rather mind boggling that Mr. Chukwura would exploit his vaunted closeness to me to fabricate stories and distort issues out of context. To start with, never did I tell Ozo Chukwura or anyone for that matter that we (the five trustees) are fighting Tony Iju for anything because there’s no such thing.
“Looking back, I now realize that each time Ozo calls me or calls on me just like he did once with Chief Aloy Igwe and Eniola Igbaruola, it has been with an ulterior motive but laced with a fake request for a solution to end the ANLCA crisis. I told Mr. Chukwura that it was unfair of those who are pandering to peace without batting an eyelid to the apparent insult meted to some of us who were declared impostors just because those who would have registered us at the CAC after our election in 2014 decided not to for reasons best known to them. And to imagine that we got so treated for no other thing but for exercising our inalienable right to change the leadership of the BOT like we did before!
“May I use this opportunity to reiterate what I have said for the upteempt time; having been a prolific National President, there’s no allure of power or position that can excite me as a BOT member of ANLCA. I only agreed to participate in the 2014 election in Warri in deference to the pressures from “loyalists” like Chukwura, Farinto, Ojo, etc. Seeing the same characters behave the way they are doing now makes me despair that real leaders are being raised in ANLCA because principles cannot be divorced from leadership.
“Besides, when I hear these stories of fighting Tony Iju ascribed to people like me, I start wondering if the peddlers of such tales are intelligent at all. Without meaning to blow my trumpet, some of these characters gerrymandering today were chapter chairmen and executives when I was the National President and they knew I gave VOICE to the licensed customs agent in Nigeria.
“I rounded it up by taking ANLCA to have audience with the President and Commander-in-Chief of Nigerian Armed Forces! So, I ask; am I fighting Tony Iju because of his achievements and records as National President having surpassed mine? Hmmm. Someone quipped once that Iju didn’t have any cogent plan for ANLCA and in order to create an alibi, he was quick to “acquire” the BOT crisis which had nothing to do with him or his NECOM.”
Photo: Former National President of ANLCA, Chief Sir Ernest Elochukwu.
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