Even though the tenure of the board of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) had elapsed since 2012, former Vice Chairman of the immediate past governing board of the Council, Mr. Sam Onyemelukwe has said that he remains the substantive Vice Chairman of the CRFFN.
Even though the tenure of the board of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) had elapsed since 2012, former Vice Chairman of the immediate past governing board of the Council, Mr. Sam Onyemelukwe has said that he remains the substantive Vice Chairman of the CRFFN.
Onyemelukwe also faulted the registrar of the Council, Sir Mike Jukwe on the relocation of the CRFFN headquarters to Lagos, saying that the headquarters has never left Lagos, not to talk of relocating it. He said that the term 'relocating' the secretariat is not correct.
The former CRFFN chieftain who currently doubles as the President of the International Freight Forwarders Association (IFFA) made the statements while fielding questions from journalists at a meeting of IFFA in Lagos on the heels of the commissioning of the new CRFFN head office.
The CRFFN had on Monday commissioned its national secretariat named 'freight forwarders headquarters'
Buttressing his position, he said: "If you say initially the headquarters was in Abuja, it is not true, I was and still the substantive Vice Chairman of CRFFN, we have since moved our headquarters to Lagos and that was why we acquired the Victoria Island office then and later the one we have at Apapa GRA".
"So, for about four years now we have moved the headquarters to Lagos, but if you are telling me that because the headquarters was relocated to Abuja last year and now they are relocating back again to Lagos, then I am giving you a privileged information based on my background" he said
Onyemelukwe stressed that, "I believe I am a substantive Vice Chairman of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria because another board is not yet in place".
Registrar of the Council, Sir Mike Jukwe had told Shipping Position Daily exclusively in May 2014 that the council is relocating its headquarters to Lagos in order to be closer to the port activities.
But, Mr. Onyemelukwe at the IFFA general meeting said that the IFFA, which he emerged as president of three months ago, is an elite association and as such should have been the first accredited association.
According to him, the IFFA is yet to have any relationship with the CRFFN because the Council has not really done what is expected of it.
"IFFA is a leading and elitist association, so if you are talking about an association to be given accreditation first, it should be IFFA, but there are certain things we expect to see happening in the CRFFN that is not there"
"There was a time that CRFFN and IFFA had issues and the issues we had was what is affecting freight forwarding practice and the practitioner, there are things IFFA is expecting them to put in place before they can begin to talk about recognition, yet we are not in court and neither are we fighting", he stressed.
Onyemelukwe said that CRFFN must have to work together with his association for the benefit of the maritime industry.
He claimed that members of the IFFA cuts across various freight forwarding associations. Chairman Board of Trustees of the association is also a former member of the immediate past board of the CRFFN, Chief Peter Obi.
"IFFA is a great association with membership comprising all the who is who and big wigs in freight and shipping, I make bold to tell you that our destiny is in our hands" Onyemelikwe said.
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