ANLCA To Take Council To Court,,,Igbo Maritime Leader Backs ANLCA.
Apparently not satisfied with the recent approval given to the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) by the Minister of Transport for the collection of practicing fees at the nations' seaport, the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agent (ANLCA) has opposed the collection of the dues saying that it is against plans of the association to collect similar dues from its members for the running of the association.
The President of ANLCA, Prince Olayiwola Shittu who is also an appointed member of the CRFFN has also said that he is resigning his membership of the council with effect from today in other to fight the course for his association properly.
At an emergency meeting of the association in Lagos yesterday, members took turns to oppose the collection of practicing fees by the CRFFN saying that it is initial to the growth of the association and that it will render the association penniless.
Speaking at the meeting, Prince Shittu said that "In other to show faith with my constituency, with effect from tomorrow i am resigning my membership from the council, i can not carry out this fight and remain in the council, it doesn't make sense" he said
ANLCA has also resolved to write a letter to the CRFFN rejecting the offer of which the council had argued to give to the associations yearly instead of giving them a percentage out of the collected money.
”We are not giving them any option. We will also write to the minister telling him of our own interpretation of transaction fees and why we object to it"
"The fourth is that we shall go to court, we will take CRFFN to court and if the government goes ahead to enforce the dues collection we will close down the ports" Shittu said.
According to him, CRFFN had earlier given the association the go ahead to collect the Cargo Clearance Dues which it resolved to collect in collaboration with the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) Shittu said that the association is already putting structures in place to collect the money and designing the sharing formular with the other associations.
According to him the approval given to the CRFFN is the same with the dues the association intends to collect.
"We had a meeting with CRFFN to discuss sharing formular and we requested for 40 percent but they offered 20 percent, there was stalemate and they offered to get back to us and that was where we stopped our discussion before the council wrote the collecting agency not to pay anyone the money again but the council"
He said that the council had directed ANLCA to withdraw a letter it had written to counter the one written by the council to the collecting firm and that the council will rather give subventions to the various associations in addition to their association dues instead of giving percentages.
Shittu argued that subventions can be withdrawn at anytime just like the one from the Federal Government to the council has been stopped for the past two years.
Meanwhile, the President General of the Igbo Maritime Forum who graced the ANLCA meeting has also given the solid backing of his group to the decisions taken by ANLCA.
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