The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) is expected to meet today to find a lasting solution to the festering face-off between the association’s electoral committee (called ASECO) and its Board of Trustees (BoT) over conduct of the elections into some of its chapters in Lagos, especially Tin Can Port chapter.
The face-off which led to the resignation of the chairman of ASECO; Alhaji Babatunde Mukaila last Friday has temporarily stalled preparations for the elections.
Sources close to the association, the feuding parties and the contestants have confirmed to our correspondents that today’s meeting will have to decide between the position of the ASECO and that of the BoT, which is headed by Chief Henry Njoku.
Ahead of today’s meeting , the two Chairmanship aspirants in the controversial forthcoming elections into the Tin Can Island Chapter have been throwing jabs at each other, even as both camps have disagreed on the relevance of a contentious 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 on Monday, 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 stated that : "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.
"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”, he stated.
On his part, the embattled ASECO Chairman; Babatunde Mukaila while fielding questions via the telephone on our sister platform; Shipping Position Live on Star fm 101.5 on Monday confirmed that he had resigned since Friday.
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.
He added that ASECO had 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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