• Says Duo Are Playing The Ostrich
• Top Official Says Council Is Broke
The embattled Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding (CRFFN) last weekend came hard on the national president of Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA); Prince Olayiwola Shittu and the founder of National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF); Dr Boniface Aniebonam over their roles in the crisis that recently engulfed the Council.
• Says Duo Are Playing The Ostrich
• Top Official Says Council Is Broke
The embattled Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding (CRFFN) last weekend came hard on the national president of Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA); Prince Olayiwola Shittu and the founder of National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF); Dr Boniface Aniebonam over their roles in the crisis that recently engulfed the Council.
I statement signed by the CRFFN’s head of Corporate Affairs; Chinyere Uromta, the duo were lampooned for the ‘holier than thou’ position that they took while the face-off over tenure elongation and collection of transaction fees lasted.
The development coincided with the discovery that the CRFFN is no longer in a position to meet its financial obligations, and this is authouritative.
Established by an Act of National Assembly in 2007, the CRFFN has been living mainly on the magnanimity of agencies under the transport ministry and on irregular appropriation.
But Shipping Position Daily confirmed last week that since the Council’s failure to see through the plans to commence collection of transaction fees, its fortunes have nosedived, making it very difficult to pay its bills.
Specifically, CRFFN has been having problems with paying staff salaries, fuelling of operation vehicles and even fuelling its generators.
“To be sincere with you, our operations in Lagos, Abuja and in all the zonal offices are almost grounded, there is no allocation from anywhere”, a top official of the council confirmed to our correspondent last week.
However, the top official blamed some members of the erstwhile governing council for acting deceitfully in the events that played itself out as regards the collection of transaction fees.
This allegation was however confirmed by the CRFFN statement which laid blame for its current predicament on the duo of Aniebonam and Shittu.
On the controversial tenure elongation, CRFFN disclosed that contrary to the erroneous impression being conveyed, the ANLCA national president actually moved a motion for the elongation at a meeting of the governing council.
“During the debate on its tenure at the 18th meeting of the Governing Council, Fwdr. Olayiwola Shittu proposed an extension of three months. Two motions of six months and one year were put to vote and the six months had it with 13 votes as against 3.” the council alleged.
It however added that the resolution was rejected by the supervisory ministry of transport.
According to the council, “the Provisions of the Act with regards to the Tenure of Members of the Governing Council is clearly spelt out. The impending expiration of the tenure of the Governing Council was communicated to the appropriate authorities by the Registrar, Fwdr. Sir Mike Jukwe”. “The holier than thou attitude and after though stand of Shittu is therefore very laughable”, the statement added.
Apparently drawing the battle line, the Council in the statement declared that, “in its resolve to reposition Freight Forwarding in Nigeria in accordance with international best practices cannot be dragged down by people like Aniebonam and Shittu for their selfishness. They are therefore warned to desist from making reckless statements about the Council and its Registrar”.
“Shittu and Aniebonam, and their co-travelers are aware that the transaction fees are the internally generated revenue (IGR) of the Council which is public revenue provided for by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and various other Acts and polices of the Government. It is not a fund to be generated, shared and or disposed of without recourse to the Federal Government. They should know that the Registrar and indeed the Council will not share Government revenue with them, or any others for that matter. Shittu and Aniebonam should therefore leave the Registrar and the Council alone. Enough is enough!”
Shipping Position Daily recalls that, the approval to commence the collection of transaction fees was contained in a letter from the ministry to the CRFFN with Reference Number T. 0160/S.172/1, dated July 3, 2012.
According to the letter, government approved for collection transaction fees for airports, seaports and land border cargoes as follows: N1.50 per kilo for air cargoes; N1000 per 20ft container; N2000 per 40ft container, N500 per car/jeep and N1000 per truck or 20ft equivalent. Others are N2000 per truck or 40ft equivalent, N3.50 per ton for general cargo and N1.00 per ton for dry bulk cargo. The federal government equally approved various registration fees for Nigerians and foreigners ranging from N7, 500 to N50, 000 depending on the category of membership. Similarly, annual subscriptions fees ranging from N10, 000 to N60, 000 were approved depending on the category of membership.
The supervisory ministry had gone a step further by directing the Nigerian Ports Authority( NPA) whose Central Office Planning and Information (COPI)unit was asked to henceforth forward copies of all cargo manifests received to the CRFFN. It also directed that CRFFN should be represented at the daily Berthing Committee meetings of NPA.
A new interim governing council is expected to be announced by the ministry of transport any moment from now, following the directive by the minister last week.
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