The Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) has embarked on a sensitization of its members at chapter levels, directing them to disobey out rightly a directive from the Federal Ministry of Transport that the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) should collect Practitioners Operations Fee (POF) at the ports.
The Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) has embarked on a sensitization of its members at chapter levels, directing them to disobey out rightly a directive from the Federal Ministry of Transport that the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) should collect Practitioners Operations Fee (POF) at the ports.
At a stakeholders meeting of the Tin Can Island Chapter of ANLCA on Wednesday, its National President; Prince Olayiwola Shittu sent a message to the chapter through two of his Special Assistants; Mr. Tope Ogungbemile and Brother Chukwudi Ike, directing the agents not to pay the POF
Shittu however warned the agents not to be confrontational with the CRFFN enforcement officers, but directed that members members of the association should use their trucks to block the entrance to any port where POF is demanded of them forcefully.
The association argued that the public notice from the Transport Ministry on Monday which was signed by Alhaji M.S Nagogo was forged, arguing that Nagogo is a retired officer of the ministry.
The association has also premised its refusal to pay the POF on the fact that the matter is already in Court and it is yet to be determined. It also argued that there is no governing council of the CRFFN in place; hence, collection of POF remains illegal.
Shittu said "Our members will not pay until it is clearly defined, what we are begging you people is to hold your grounds, we are not going to pay until it is fully discussed"
"Once a matter is in court, nothing should happen until the case is determined, so if they have come to collect POF, it is an illegal collection"
"We don't want you to fight them or beat them, but if they insist that you will not go, use your containers to line up and block the ports, we can even abandon the containers and insist that we are in court"
"Let them go and collect the money from their members and share it, we are not paying" he said
Shittu maintained that the collection is not authorized by the Act of CRFFN but by a gazette that was published, noting that an Act is superior to a gazette.
Speaking further, Shittu said that "freight forwarding has a definition which includes even the vulcanizer pumping truck tires at the port, therefore every body inside the ports is supposed to be regulated by CRFFN, so why is it only license customs agents that should pay this money" he queried.
Also speaking at the stakeholders meeting, Secretary of the Tin Can Island Chapter of ANLCA, Mr. David Chucks Kanikwu accused the CRFFN of engaging a consultant without the knowledge of the governing council.
He alleged that the Registrar of the Council is currently acting contrary to section 2, 6 and 12 of CRFFN Act.
Kanikwu also condemned the public notice from the transport ministry saying:"The man that signed the circular about the collection you saw in the papers, Nagogo is retired, he signed it within the three months he was supposed to be on annual leave of retirement, so this cannot be enforced"
"They (CRFFN) went to borrow N50million from Shippers Council in furtherance to the election and they have not paid it, and government paid them N250million subvention within this period that they don't have a governing council." Kanikwu said.
Vice Chairman of the chapter, Barrister Ada Akpunonu also berated the CRFFN, saying that it has never addressed critical issues affecting clearing agents at the ports and that they have not given an account of how the registration fees paid by clearing agents was expended.
Apart from this, she said that the Council was being funded through the Ministry of Transport and it has failed to give account of how the money is spent.
"Today they are talking about collection of fees, have they ever addressed some of the issues facing us at the ports, the CRFFN does not care, all they want is to collect money"
"Why is it that our so-called leaders from the other associations are only looking for ways to impoverish agents the more? We are talking about TICT, why can't they be concerned about addressing the suffering of their members" Akpunonu said.
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