… Threaten withdrawal of service if issues persist
Freight Forwarders’ group, Concerned Nigerian Registered Freight Forwarders, CNRFF has issued a seven day ultimatum to the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria, CRFFN to address or be seen to be addressing the various operational challenges facing freight forwarders at the nation’s seaports or face withdrawal of service.
The Convener of CNRFF, Dr. Basil Nwolisa who made this known in a statement he made available to our correspondent on Sunday noted that the body which is a collaboration of over 10 groups in the freight forwarding and transport subsector expressed surprise and disappointment at the way the freight forwarders were suffering adding that there’s no succor from the CRFFN whose mandate included the welfare and protection of their businesses.
Nwolisa who sought to know what was causing the slow approach by the Council in carrying out their regulatory functions observed that in spite of the fact that the CNRFF had thrown its weight in support of the implementation of the 32 Resolutions contained in the Freight Forwarders Consultative Forum, FFCF Communique issued recently, none of the items had been enforced.
He further requested to know why the freight forwarders were abandoned and forced to resort to self help while the Registrar of CRFFN, Barr. Samuel Nwakohu relaxed in his air- conditioned office to monitor the payment of the Practitioners’ Operating Fee, POF and ignore the welfare of those he was to regulate.
“Today, the freight forwarders are facing issues relating to customs arbitrary issuance of Demand Notices, DN, baseless queries on genuine declarations made for customs purposes, shipping company high-handedness etc. Here again, we have no one to complain to. We are just at the mercy of the government agencies and service providers.
“Council should let us know what the issues are particularly those we voted to represent us. The 15 practitioners owe us some explanations on what is going in the Council”, he said.
The CNRFF Convener also demanded to know the actual truth on the alleged certificate forgery by the Registrar of the Council and the rumor that the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Transportation, Dr. Magdalene Ajani was shielding him from being prosecuted for various infractions.
According to him, “We have seen that the Registrar is careless about carrying out his roles and he should be called to order and if found not having the capacity, he should be shown the way out.
“If after seven days from now and our association discovers that no one cares for our plights, we shall take it officially, and if that approach fails, the next option shall be to galvanize support from our members to withdraw our services from the ports all over.
“We want to believe that the Permanent Secretary is not part of our predicaments and that the rumors that the Registrar is trying to acquire a new office for an over bloated amount is not true.
“We have ran out of patience as I speak with you. We cannot fold our hands and see our members loiter like sheep without a shepherd. Enough is Enough! If this trend continues, we can not guarantee industrial harmony anymore as our members are living in total frustration.”
Photo: Dr. Basil Nwolisa, Convener, Concerned Nigerian Registered Freight Forwarders.
Send your press invite, news, press releases/articles to augustinenwadinamuo@yahoo.com. Also, follow us on Twitter @PrimetimeRepor1 and on Facebook on facebook.com/primetimereporters or call the editor on 07030661526.
