Two Chairmanship aspirants in the forthcoming elections into the Tin Can Island Chapter of Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) have been throwing jabs at each other, even as both camps have disagreed on the relevance of a controversial document (Form C30) as part of requirements for the election.
The Board of Trustees (BOT) of ANLCA at a meeting last week had insisted that the Form C30 must be a compulsory requisite by the Association Electoral Committee (ASECO) in conducting the elections.
But, both aspirants in the elections have argued the validity of the document.
Speaking with Shipping Position Daily in separate interviews in Lagos yesterday, Coordinator of Segun Oduntan (Chairmanship Aspirant) campaign; Mr. Akanni Balogun alleged insincerity on the part of the BOT and ASECO.
He argued that the use of Form C30 was out-dated, saying that customs is now in a digital age, and as such, the form can no longer be used for purposes of election in ANLCA.
According to him, the other aspirant; Ojo Akintoye does not have a valid license to contest as Chairman in the election.
He also pointed out that the guidelines for conduct of elections by ASECO do not mandate the use of the Form C30 and that the BOT should allow the electoral body to do its work.
"We use C30 when we were still analogue and getting physical contact with customs to lodge an entry, but now, all is done online"
"We have forgotten about form C30 long ago, because it is no longer relevant to our operations, we now use ‘C' numbers, the C30 could be faked, and customs has moved to ASYCUDA, even though it's in ASECO requirements, but it has not been used in all elections, it is an aberration", he said.
Balogun appealed to the BOT not to be biased in the elections. He alleged that recent developments surrounding the Form C30 have given his team reasons to suspect foul play between the Secretary of the Board; Prince Taiye Oyeniyi and Chairman of the Board; Chief Henry Njoku.
He accused Secretary of the Board of going to the bond office at Tin Can Customs and illegally obtaining a list of compliant practising licenses which he allegedly doctored and tendered to the board chairman.
Balogun said: "We are happy the ASECO Chairman resigned because they didn’t want to allow him perform, they wanted to dictate to him what is not in the rules, so I think his conscience made him to resign"
"Once a license is under suspension, that license will not be allowed to vote, we have a reliable source that Danmeyaki Investments Limited is under suspension and there is evidence to prove that he did not renew for 2015. The condition of ASECO is that any aspirant must have five years of consistent renewal without breaking (concurrent)".
Also speaking with Shipping Position Daily, another aspirant, Mr. Ojo Akintoye commended the decision of the BOT, saying that this is not the first time ASECO is asking for the Form C30, he added that it has always been used in every ANLCA elections.
He alleged that some power brokers in ANLCA were bent on frustrating his camp because he does not have money to throw around like his opponent.
He alleged many voters licenses curried by his opponent do not have valid Form C30 and that they had hurriedly gone ahead to forge the form after the BOT decision. Ojo pointed out that the form C30 is a customs document and its forgery is a punishable offense.
He stated : "It is because I don't have money that I have been treated like this in this election, but I have my people, I am always on ground to solve their problems. There is no way I could have gotten that kind of money to give anyone"
"I don't want to say that ASECO has been compromised or not, the reason for their resignation is best known to them, we are waiting for Wednesday to hear from them, the BOT and NECOM"
"The guidelines of ASECO mandated it that form C30 is very important for the election"
"The screening process includes current form C30, correct license, form CO7, CO2 and certificate of incorporation, ASECO needs to be questioned if it is no longer a pre-requisite. I don't see why we are dragging this issue unnecessarily"
Ojo also said that a clearing agent cannot pay renewal of license without the form C30 and such an agent cannot operate in any command without registering in that command with form C30.
……Why I Resigned As ANLCA ASECO Chairman’….. Babatunde Mukaila
The festering election crisis rocking the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) deepened over the weekend with the head of association’s elections body; Alhaji Babatunde Mukaila resigning his position. He resigned late on Friday, after days of unresolved crisis of confidence over elections into the association’s Tin Can Port chapter.
The Chairman of the Association Electoral Committee (ASECO) of ANLCA reportedly threw in the towel after unresolved differences between the association’s Board of Trustees (BoT) and the ASECO. The differences stem from modalities for conducting the elections.
The ASECO chair, while fielding questions via the telephone on our sister platform; Shipping Position Live on Star fm 101.5 on Monday confirmed that he had submitted his letter of resignation ASECO chairman.
According to him, the association’s electoral committee is purely an ad-hoc body and there is need to give way for other people to come on board and serve.
The embattled ASECO chairman however confirmed that there were some actions of some individuals that were capable of causing ripples in the association and this needed to be sorted out, even as he recalled that he has been chairman for more than six years.
Mukaila also reaffirmed that, as the longest serving chairman of ASECO in the history of ANLCA, there is the need to call it quit at this time.
When asked why the elections at Tin Can Island Ports and other chapters were postponed, he maintained that "the postponement was as a result of the inability of a very important member like an observer and a witness who can monitor the election on behalf of the board who was unavoidable absent which brought about the shift of date for the elections"
"Don't forget also that the process was a 90 day’s journey and it is only in ANLCA that we have space of time to make all the processes go round and that was the first reason for our postponement", he added.
Still speaking on the reasons behind the postponement of the elections, he reiterated that when elections are to be delivered, the organ that is empowered to act on the process is the BoT.
He said that ASECO has come up with ideas to ensure that shoddy elections are no longer conducted and that all that is happening currently are to ensure that the path of electoral purity that had been opened would not be blocked.
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