Since he called it quit with the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) about 16 years ago to form (along with other ANLCA members) the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents, hi s enemies have continued to grow in leaps.
Since he called it quit with the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) about 16 years ago to form (along with other ANLCA members) the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents, hi s enemies have continued to grow in leaps.
Shortly after he led others to from the Council on account of the non-IDR scam of 1995 which made almost all members of ANLCA to lose their licensed, entrenched forces in the ‘mother’ association saw him as an opportunist that deserved to be crushed. Attempts were made by the Sani Kamba- led national executives to strangulate him, but he survived the plots by his mastery of words, knowledge of contemporary issues and his wits.
His ambition to become a member of the pioneer governing council of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) was his next battle. His failure to clinch a seat on the Council pitched him against some powers-that-be. He went to court to challenge the conduct and eventual outcome of the elections. This led to a confrontation with the ministry of transport whose successive ministers have since 2007 seen Amiwero as an enemy who should not be touched with a 10-foot pole. This probably accounts for why he was not recognized by the CRFFN. Rather, it was another claimant to the office of the President of Amiwero’s Council; Chief Festus Ejiofor who was recognized and made a member.
Probably not wanting to take the laws into his hands, Amiwero went to court to challenge his purported removal; the case is still in court.
The second case that Amiwero has in the court is the one between him and the CRFFN.
While the only thing that he may have lost on account of his case against the CRFFN is his being denied a seat in the governing council, his case against the Ejiofor-led faction is costing him more than he probably bargained for.
Those whom he is fighting to wrestle the National Council from are always eager to offer assistance to those he may have offended by his actions.
When Mr Amiwero was arrested by the Police in August 2009, some personalities were fingered; some even openly boasted that he would rot in Kirikiri prison where he was remanded pending when he would meet the bail conditions. He ended up spending more than one week there.
Last week’s arrest also bears some semblance with the 2009 experience when some notable figures in the Ejiofor-led faction were fingered. Last week again, the factional president happily told whoever cared to listen that he was the architect of Lucky Amiwero’s present ordeal , an ordeal which saw him spending a night in an undignifying cell at the Customs Federal Operations Unit in Ikeja.
In 2009, he was brutalized along with his wife and son for allegedly resisting arrests by the Police; last week also, we learnt that he was rough-handled by men of the Federal Operations Unit (FOU) who came to arrest him.
His arrest was said to have been necessitated by a petition that was written by Ejiofor.
While this may be the reason on the face value, there are insinuations that the present travail is a direct but veiled consequence of his penchant for writing petitions to the Presidency, National Assembly, the Minister of Finance and others about issues which he feels strongly about.
The latest of those issues is the controversial customs duty benchmark which Customs was forced to cancel recently and for which Lucky Amiwero has claimed responsibility.
Certain questions beg for answer in the role that the Nigeria Customs Service played in the whole drama. One, Lucky was not arrested or invited for committing offence that has direct bearing to the operations of the Customs. Two, if it is true that he was invited or arrested based on a petition by factional president; Ejiofor, then the Nigeria Customs Service should have known better- that it is the responsibility of the Police and not theirs, to act on the petition. Importantly, didn’t the Customs know that the battle for the soul of the Council of Managing Directors is already before the court?
Can it then be true that Lucky Amiwero’s only ‘sin’ is the petition over the controversial benchmark!
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