The Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Col. Hameed Ali (rtd) has directed freight forwarding associations, including the NAGAFF, AREFFN and National of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents to return to the Association of Nigeria Licensed Agents (ANLCA).
This is even as the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) has moved to ensure the Customs does not license any individual or corporate organisations as a customs broker unless it is first cleared by CRFFN.
These developments ensued last week at the Customs and stakeholders’ engagement on the review of Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA) organised by the Nigeria Customs Service in Lagos.
Subsequently, the Customs boss has said that the proposed CEMA will not be passed without taking into consideration the submissions of the CRFFN in order to avoid conflict between both agencies and their enabling Acts.
Ali however called for consolidation of associations in the sector, saying that without this, they will not be recognised by Customs.
Speaking with pressmen on the side-line of the event, he said, "somebody will stand up and claim to belong to a group, but when it comes to customs operations, we have to work with the mother association".
"MAN for instance, we have no problem with them because we know who we are relating with, but when you now take an organisation which has a splinter, if the splinter group makes a case and the mother group makes a case, who do you pay attention to?"
"So, in our operations, this really creates problems for us and this is why I advise that they should try to be intact so that we as customs service could find it easier to collaborate and work with them in the course of our doing business."
Addressing the stakeholders earlier, the CG OF Customs said, "you want us to treat you the way others are treated, but once you create a faction, it becomes difficult for us to work with you, so the cooperation you are looking for will be difficult unless you return to the mother association".
However in his presentation, External Solicitor for the CRFFN, Barrister Okwudili Alagbu argued that the CRFFN Act of 2007 is superior to the obsolete CEMA of 1958.
He pointed out that certain shortcomings in some sections of the CEMA have been corrected with the creation of the CRFFN Act.
Alagbu observed a careful exclusion of the practice of freight forwarding from the proposed CEMA as customs did not make any recourse whatsoever to the extant provisions of the CRFFN Act.
He pointed out that: "Section 19 (1) is a subsequent act of the National Assembly that established the CEMA that we are all here to amend"
"CRFFN Act is a law that has covered the ground and addressed certain flaws of the CEMA, it says that before anybody or corporate organisation is registered with the customs, he must present a certificate as a registered freight forwarder"
"The CRFFN Act defines a freight forwarding to cover the entire logistics chain management procedure, including customs brokerage"
"You cannot be a licensed customs agent without first being a freight forwarder; you cannot be a judge without first being a lawyer".
Alagbu submitted a copy of the CRFFN Act with the Customs legal adviser, Barr Paul Ikhenoba.
Responding, the customs boss; Ali acknowledged receipt of the CRFFN Act and he vowed never to push a CEMA that will contradict sections of the CRFFN Act.
He said that "If we make any law that is in conflict with a superior law, it automatically becomes null and void, you don't need to have a provision in your own law that you know that the moment you invoke it, somebody will use a superior law to take you to court and win the case"
"So, every section we put in the CEMA must be in conformity with every superior laws. If we put anything there that is contrary to the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, that section becomes void"
"We have heard all that was presented, but our lawyer will put it side by side with other superior laws to ensure there is no conflict and to make sure it would not inhibit the way we do our business" he assured.
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