The International Freight Forwarders Association (IFFA) has fired back at the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) for alleging that it's Ijora Chapter Chairman, Mr. Lawrence Ubah absconded with an importer's container.
President of IFFA, Dr. Sam Onyemelukwe in a telephone chat with Shipping Position Daily at the weekend described the ANLCA Western Zone Coordinator, Sir John Oforbike who made the statement in a press briefing on Tuesday as a tout.
Onyemelukwe said that IFFA as an association has not received any formal complaints from the customs or any stakeholders at Ijora Chapter about the conduct of the IFFA chairman.
He said that ANLCA members have resulted to spreading rumours and bad-mouthing IFFA members just because they are scared of all the innovations being put in place by IFFA under his administration.
He told our correspondent that: "IFFA is coming from the background of institutionalising professionalism and nobody has ever communicated to us or notified us of any crime or that they were looking for him (Lawrence Ubah)"
"For you to know how parochial some of these people can be, especially people like Oforbike, what is his pedigree? Where is he coming from? Is he not a tout?"
"When we are talking about professionalising the industry, it is the likes of Oforbike’s background should not involve in such a discuss".
"They are afraid of how we are bringing all these global best practices into being", he said.
Onyemelikwe recounted that Mr. Ubah had been a Vice chairman of ANLCA at Lillypond Terminal for two decades without any bad records.
"Ubah was also a vice chairman of ANLCA, for the last two decades that he has been with ANLCA, has he ever received any query or any disciplinary action while he was in ANLCA?"
"He left ANLCA to join IFFA out of his own volition and he was never dismissed from ANLCA. When he left ANLCA, he left with other executives"
"If you say that our chairman at Ijora Chapter is on the run, then let us know, communicate with us on what his offenses are"
"If maritime is an industry that has a standard, people like Oforbike should not be a practitioner", he said.
Also reacting to the allegations, the PTML Chapter Chairman of IFFA, Mr Sunny Nnebe said that Mr. Ubah was never arrested, neither is he on the run.
He argued that Ubah just came back from abroad and was with Tin Can chapter during the recent inauguration of a task force.
Nnebe alleged that ANLCA members are the real people behind importation of arms and other offensive cargoes into Nigeria.
"ANLCA should admit their failure and look for a way they can restructure their association that is dead already. Record will confirm that those involved in arms import and clearing are ANLCA members and this is how they managed the dying association for over 50years without anything to show for their long existence"
"They should be ashamed for not being able to put their house in order. I responded to this because the people that gave press release on security matter should know that it's their national office responsibility and not chapter chairmen as claimed", he said.
Shipping Position Daily correspondent made frantic efforts to get across to the embattled IFFA Chairman at Ijora Chapter but his phones were switched off.
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