Factional chairman of the Board of Trustees of Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) ;Chief Henry Njoku has accused the immediate past National President of the association; Prince Olayiwola Shittu of masterminding the crisis that has engulfed the board, saying that Shittu was deliberately promoting tribalism.
Njoku in a chat with Shipping Position Daily on Tuesday however assured that he would call for a meeting to resolve the leadership crisis in the board only if the other faction led by Alhaji Taiwo Mustapha decides to embrace peace.
Njoku argued that the election which was purportedly held on the eve of the inauguration of the present executive led by Tony Iju was not done with good intention.
Meanwhile, Secretary of the ANLCA Board, Prince Taiye Oyeniyi, has said that the factional chairman, Chief Henry Njoku, lacked the power to continue as the chairman. Oyeniyi, who said this on Wednesday while speaking on our sister platform; Shipping Position Live in on Star FM in Lagos, also argued that the position of BoT chairman was determined by the majority of members of the board during the election which produced Alhaji Taiwo Mustapha.
Njoku in his chat with one of our correspondents, specifically pointed accusing fingers at Prince Shittu, saying, “I have always said it; Shittu that is behind it all, and as he is doing it, he will know if he is benefitting from it or not, I moved the association out of tribal sentiments, but he brought it back as he was leaving, it was his own legacy and it would remain for him”
“When Elochukwu (a former president) was there, the place was scattered, Shittu met peace in the association, it was my handwork. But all these that he is doing is because his candidate lost in the election, when there is election, it is compulsory that one person must emerge”.
Making reference to the call that he should step down as the BoT chairman because an Igbo man is the association’s president, Njoku said: “It is not written in the constitution that when an Igbo man is president, then a Yoruba man should be BoT chairman”.
On the proposed reconciliatory meeting, he said: “When there is need for a roundtable discussion, we shall have it, but for now, those who are destroying the association think they are benefitting from it, but when they see they cannot benefit from it, they will start looking for solution, sometimes when you preach peace for too long, it would look like a weakness”.
Nkoku insisted that at the inauguration of the BOT, it was not clearly spelt out that the position should be rotated for two years tenure.
According to him, he said the word used was suggestive. He said “The agreement was that we ‘may’ be rotating it. But at a time, the matter came up and one of them said there is no need for it, others Okayed it and said we should leave it the way it is. We don’t even have up to two years to give to somebody, if it not with bad intention, why did they wait for this long?”
He insisted that the time left for the current board is merely a year and six months and that this does not equal the two year term purportedly left for his opponent to serve.
“Why should election be on the eve of the day we were inaugurating the new President? This shows that it was not done with good intentions. In the history of the association, we have not insisted on tribe for who should be BoT chairman, when Elochukwu was president, I was still chairman of the BoT”
Meanwhile, the BoT Secretary; Prince Taiye Oyeniyi on Shipping Position Live sharply disagreed with Henry Njoku’s position, saying that he was aware of the two years tenure rotation and that he was equally carried along on the day of the election.
The BoT secretary also said that Njoku canvassed for the election to be conducted, but on a different day while majority of BoT members insisted that the election must hold on that particular day.
"On the eve of the inauguration of the new executives, there was an election, everybody was present including the former chairman; Chief Henry Njoku. The only personality that was not there that day was our incumbent president and it was because he was one of us before and now he is the national president. After digesting all the agenda that we had that day then the issue of leadership came up, our former chairman insisted that the leadership change must take place but not on that particular day and we insisted that majority carries the vote. Five of us agreed that there must be a change of leadership"
"On that particular day, there was an intention for nomination; Alhaji Taiwo Mustapha was nominated along Chief Denis Okafor. Denis Okafor declined and at the end of the day, Alhaji Taiwo Mustapha got five votes; all of us where present and the same thing happened to the vice".
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