CRFFN Endorses Interim Leadership for Embattled Council of Managing Directors

Barely 48 hours after a group which called itself ‘founding members of National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Agents’ called for an emergency meeting and removed the group’s national president, Mr Lucky Amiwero, the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding inn Nigeria (CRFFN) has offered recognition to the new leadership of the embattle association..

Chairman of CRFFN, Mr Tony Nwabunike told Shipping Position Weekly exclusively last weekend that the new leadership under Prince Obieze had already officially notified the CRFFN of the change of guard at the Council of Managing Directors and that the CRFFN had in turn endorsed the change.

Selected along with Obieze to pilot the affairs of the embattled Council of Managing Directors were: Ben Udeh, deputy national president, Mr Olakunmi, publicity secretary and Mrs Jullie Ogboru as treasurer.

The CRFFN chairman said that the change of leadership was democratic and that he had also advised the new team to ensure that elections were conducted within three months so as to avoid the mistakes that were made by the past leadership.  

Sources hinted that the embattled ex- president may have incurred the anger of some powerful forces within the freight forwarding family following his failure to respect the intervention of the minister of transport, Alhaji Ibrahim Bio in the face-off between him and the CRFFN over the outcome of elections into the Council last year.  He is still in court to challenge the outcome of the election.

Shipping Position Weekly had quoted Mr Amiwero about three months ago as saying that he was not opposed to an out-of-court settlement if the terms were alright.  He also confirmed that the minister was indeed intervening in the mater and that meetings were going on.

This paper had reported exclusively last week that one of such meetings held penultimate week at the corporate head office of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council and that Mr Amiwero walked out on the executive secretary of Shippers’ Council, Captain Adamu Biu who presided over the meeting as the minister’s representative.

Perhaps, what was needed to cut Mr Amiwero to size was our lead story of last week which exposed the outcome of the meeting between Capt Biu and the duo of the Chairman, Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN), Mr. Nwabunike and Mr Amiwero.

But, since the ouster last week, there had been moves to go for the final kill by merging the Council of Managing Directors with the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA). 

Mr Nwabunike equally did not rule out the possibility of proscribing the Council of Managing Directors or merging it with ANLCA. “I may be tempted to invoke relevant sections of the CRFFN Act on the association, if the need arises”, he said.

But, when contacted, Mr Amiwero denounced those who removed him from office, saying they are “‘riff raffs’ who are going to be taken care of in the usual Council’s manner of doing things”.

He claimed that those who purportedly removed him from office are not members of the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Agents.