AREFFN Thumbs-Down Recent Clearing Agents Strike

The Association of Registered Freight Forwarders of Nigeria (AREFFN) has described the recent strike action embarked upon by freight forwarders against terminal, operator; APMT as a total failure, even as it predicted that the action will not make the terminal operator to change its ways.
National president of the association, Dr. Frank Ukor told Shipping Position Daily exclusively in Lagos last week that despite the energy and time that was expended on the 12-day action, the freight forwarders will continue to pay the arbitrary changes.

The President said that the Memorandum of Standard (MOU) that was signed between the agents and APMT will not yield positive result, adding that AREFFN will always advocate for the rule of law to take its course in the circumstances that led to the strike.

He said: "AREFFN would want to do thinks different from the way other associations are doing it , we don't believe in shutting down the ports or the entry gates of ports because when you close down the ports, a lot of people will suffer and we don't believe in that "

"What we believe in is going through due process and moreover, when they wanted to embark on that strike action, they didn't call us".

He said the best way to handle such crises would have been a court injunction, rather to make noise, which in turn resulted to loss of revenue.

Ukor declared that the protest was a failure adding that, "if anybody says that the protest was a success, I will disagree with him because it was a complete failure because most of things that were being ask for are still there".

The AREFFN president further debunked claims that AREFFN was part the protest saying the Apapa chapter chairman of his association was not part of the action.

He claimed that an unknown agent signed the MoU on behalf of the AREFFN chairman in Apapa; Jones Idemili.