The problems of the embattled President of the Association of Registered Freight Forwarders Nigeria (AREFFN), Dr. Frank Ukor is far from being over as members of the Board of Trustees of the association has called on him to give account of his stewardship or be picked up by the operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The Chairman of the Board, Mr. Ejike Metu and the Secretary of the Board, Mr. Innocent Elum who made this call in Lagos while interacting with newsmen on the development in the association accused Dr. Ukor of embezzling the association’s money put in the neighborhood of N12, 000, 000, which they said was remitted to the association from the Onne chapter.
They recalled that Ukor, having established a chapter at Onne in 2007, appropriated to himself monies being remitted for the headquarters maintenance by the executives of the chapter without letting the Board members or the association know that such monies were coming.
“As he was running the association in 2007, he got in touch with the eastern ports and our presence was established at Onne for which we applauded him, but he fell off with the executives he set up there at Onne and what caused the problem? Monies were coming to the association from Onne chapter, he had given this Onne chapter our constitution, how finances are administered and of course, the executives so as to not to lose their positions were obeying him and were bringing money to him and felt they were remitting to the headquarters but these monies were actually going into Frank Ukor’s personal account and we didn’t know.
“So, we were like that until one day, about July last year, he called both of us and said to us that there was a problem in the association and we were surprised, we wanted him to tell us what the problem was. He said that some people had gone to CAC to try to change our constitution but when it was not possible, they got the certified true copy of our certificate of registration and we asked a question, who are those people? He began to mention names, he said Bala, Chidi, these were members of the executives he established at Onne, these were the guys that were remitting those money to headquarters and he was sitting on it.
“Now the boys at a point got angry because he was always frequenting there to ask for money, making them believe that he was the owner of the association, so at a point, those boys with their lawyer said no, one person cannot own association, we are going to conduct a search. So, they went to the CAC for legal search and now found Ejike Metuselah, Frank Ukor and myself as Board members. Now, armed with the document, Frank, unknown to him, now went to collect money, and they said to him, Oga, go and call other members of the Board, let us be sure that we are dealing with the right people.
“That was where he started having issues, he tried his best to get money from them and they said no, we can’t give you money until you have given account and we are sure that the money we have given you so far was not remitted to the Board. He now dissolved them and the boys said no, you can’t dissolve us; they now passed a vote of no confidence on him with their lawyer. It was a big case, that was when he started calling us and said, look, there is problem and we asked, what is the problem? He said some monies were coming to the association and we were surprised.
“You see when you look at the man; he looks innocent but very dubious person. And he said, look, you know this kind of money, you don’t mention it if it is coming from the customs. And I said to him, I am a clearing agent, you are a clearing agent and you are telling me that monies from customs cannot be related to me? And the money we are talking about runs into million. We now started having issues; we asked him, how much money are we talking about? He said it is like N2, 000, 000 every month but the boys are not coming with the money anymore. We got mad!
“He must give account of his stewardship and that is what we are asking for, that is the whole essence of this briefing otherwise we are picking him up with EFCC any moment. Concerning our money he is holding, he knows it is a crime and of course, we will invite EFFCC at any point in time to go into that.
“The President who was the Chairman of Onne then has made calculations of how much he has remitted to his personal account so far and the money is in the region of N11, 000, 000 to N12, 000, 000. They have their vouchers with them to support their claims. We are saying Frank should release that money to the association so that the association can be run like an association”, they said.
Photo: Embattled President of AREFFN, Dr. Frank Ukor.
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