…Says appointment contravenes Act setting up Council
The Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) has criticized the appointment of a six man Governing Council members for the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) describing it contravening the provisions of the Act establishing the Council.
President Muhammadu Buhari had earlier this year announced the appointment of Hon. Donatus Ozoemena, Benson Edo, Abubakar Tsanni, Sen. Bisi Oyewo, Mr. Hassan Jonga and Otunba Moshood Tijani as members of the CRFFN Governing Board adding that the Chairman will emerge after election by the freight forwarders as the Act stipulates that the Chairman must come from the elected freight forwarding practitioners in the Council.
But in an interview with our correspondent in Lagos, the National Publicity Secretary (NPS) of ANLCA, Dr. Kayode Farinto disclosed that the appointment was supposed to be made after elections must have been conducted for the freight forwarders from amongst whom the Chairman of the Council would emerge adding that their appointment was supposed to reflect the six geopolitical zones of the country as spelt out in the Act.
Farinto figured that somebody may have misled the President into making appointments that were against the spirit of the Act setting up the Council as the appointments were devoid of freight forwarding practitioners except for Otunba Moshood Tijani, who he said was the only practitioner in the appointees.
According to him,” There is supposed to be an election before the government will now make their own appointment and their appointment is supposed to reflect the six geopolitical zones. The government can also appoint based on institution, so but the appointment that is made now is contradictory to the Act and there is no eureka in that area. We are hoping government will look into that area.
“We want the President to know that somebody has misled him and it will be working against the Act 16 of 2007. What is the intention of the government on this Act? It is to regulate the freight forwarders, you made five or six appointments, only one person is a freight forwarder and even the appointment is against what the Act said but Mr. President may not be aware, somebody must have misled Mr. President and I am sure that by the time he gets our letter, he will reverse himself”.
On whether the freight forwarders would conduct election so as to produce their own representatives in the Council, he queried, “Can you get the Board constituted when the wrong thing has been done? Do I need to tell you what the Act said? The Act highlights that even the Chairman of the Board will come from among the freight forwarders that will be elected. Are you now saying that somebody who has been appointed will now supervise our election? And when it is conducted, will the chairman emanate from among them?
“The Act has not been duly followed, until the Act is duly followed, the act says there will be six appointments from Mr. President representing the six geopolitical zones but it didn’t reflect that. That means some zones have been shortchanged. It supposed to reflect the six geopolitical zones and institutions that are practicing freight forwarding. How can we now rush and say they should conduct election? The appointment is faulty from the onset, if the President sees our letter and say, oh sorry, it was an oversight but still go ahead and conduct election, we come back home and decide on that”.
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