NAGAFF Founder; Dr Aniebonam Lambastes ANLCA

Amidst the festering controversies over the collection of practitioners’ operation fees by the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN), the Founder of National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF); Dr Boniface Aniebonam has taken a swipe at the rival Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA).
Dr Aniebonam who spoke on our radio programme, Shipping Position Live yesterday accused ANLCA of insincerity in the current face-off over collection of the fees by the CRFFN.

Amidst the festering controversies over the collection of practitioners’ operation fees by the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN), the Founder of National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF); Dr Boniface Aniebonam has taken a swipe at the rival Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA).
Dr Aniebonam who spoke on our radio programme, Shipping Position Live yesterday accused ANLCA of insincerity in the current face-off over collection of the fees by the CRFFN.
The NAGAFF founder who was fielding questions via the telephone acknowledged that there was an agreement signed by the leaders of the five associations prior to the approval that was granted by the Minister of Transport; Senator Idris Umar and the eventual gazette, which conferred legitimacy on the fees.
According to him, the gazette is sacrosanct and anyone who is against the fees should go to court. “The CRFFN is an agency of the federal government, the approval to collect the fees is an executive directive”.  
He maintained that the position of ANLCA on the collection of the fees was in bad faith and alleged that it was borne out of the association’s wish that CRFFN will not survive.
 He accused ANLCA of not wanting the CRFFN Bill to scale through during the period that it was being worked on at the National Assembly. “ANLCA opposed the establishment of the CRFFN”, he alleged, even as he accused the rival association of always doing what is inimical to the success of the Council.
On the position of some stakeholders that the CRFFN Registrar is limited in functions without a governing council in place and that the practitioners fees can not be collected until the governing council is constituted, the foremost freight forwarder disagreed , saying “the Registrar must work, there can’t be any vacuum”.
Dr Aniebonam however acknowledged the need to have elections into the governing council of the CRFFN, he said the elections would hold soon. He also claimed that out of the 15 slots for the five registered associations, NAGAFF would be given five slots.