BOT Chairman Not Known to ANLCA’s Constitution

ABIOLA Seun

As the crisis which has plagued the Board of Trustees (BOT) of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) rages on, the National Vice President of ANLCA, Mr Kayode Farinto has said that the position of BOT chairman is not known to the law.

This was even as he said that the court has been identified as the body whose verdict holds the final solution to the impasse.

The National Vice President of ANLCA, Mr Kayode Farinto who made this clarification in an interview with journalists in Lagos said that the final decision of the court will reign supreme on the matter.

The Vice President disclosed that ANLCA being a responsible entity has a firm belief in the rule of law and will await the final decision of the court on the matter and comply with it whenever it comes.

Farinto stated that ANLCA has not gone to court on the BOT crisis but has not less than five cases instituted against it adding that as a law abiding body however it would appear in court when there is a need for it to do so as well as respect every legal injunction.

He stated that the preoccupation of the executive is to uphold its Constitution saying fortunately there was no place in that document where the position of Chairman and Secretary of the Board was mentioned in the Constitution.

Consequently, the Vice President explained that the Association does not recognize anybody as its Chairman while it does not support any of the two parties that are claiming to be so but that it is only interested in peace in the Board and ANLCA.

Insisting that the Court has the ace to the crisis, when asked if elders of the Association should intervene and advise the parties to settle out of court, he said that such people must be past Presidents of the Association like Chief Rafiu Oladipo and Alhaji Sani Kamba saying that this is because some past Presidents are behind the BOT crisis.

He however explained that the Board is an advisory body to the association while the executive has the responsibility of the day-to-day running of the Association, a role he said the current executive has been performing in the last eleven months when it was voted into office.

Farinto stated that while the ongoing crisis of the BOT has affected the Association , the executive has nevertheless been delivering the dividends of democracy to its members in terms of provision of a conducive 30- seating hall for the training of its members hoping that the custom brokers will continue to respond to such opportunities as they arise .

According to him, the association has already reached out to relevant stakeholders to assist it through equipping the hall with computers while the facility will be functional in the next couple of months.

The Vice President disclosed that in the last couple of months, the customs has already trained the Association’s members twice on the Nigerian Integrated Customs Information System (NICIS) II while also collaborating with other stakeholders.

He explained that the association would be having a robust engagement with the Federal Inland Revenue Service and that this will afford the executive the opportunity to let FIRS know that it does not have to start taxing the association excessively when it sees a lot of money in its account but that it has to know that such monies most of the time are for the Federal Government, either duty collection or service payment.

Farinto also informed that the association has been interfacing with the Assistant Comptroller General (ACG) of Customs at Harvey Road Yaba, on the issue of interception of containers already examined at the Area ‘B’ adding that the Customs has already said it should be given two weeks to make its findings before getting back to the association.

The Vice President revealed that in as much as the issue of capacity building for members remain sacrosanct for the executive it will continue to be alive to its responsibilities in this area as well as take up other issues which will promote the well-being of its members and enhance the development of the body.

On the issue of the BOT, it will be recalled that the crisis which has polarized the Board into two camps, the Alhaji Taiwo Mustapha group and that of Chief Henry Njoku commenced in April with the claim that Alhaji Mustapha emerged as the new Chairman with majority votes of five to two for Njoku in an election said to have been organised that month, but the Njoku group said that no election took place.

While the current President of the Association, Honourable Tony Nwabunike intervened in the impasse last May, but the truce did not work out even as a member of the Board, Chief Peter Obi who is on the side of Chief Njoku has gone to court asking it to determine who are the authentic and Bonafide members of the Board.

The Alhaji Mustapha faction has also suspended the earlier ASECO, the election organising body of the association, put in place a fresh one which it used to conduct an election into some chapters in the Western Zone as well as gone to court to restrain the Association from reversing its decision even as the National Executive Committee (NEC) has declared such action null and void, condemned those behind it as well as suspended some of its national officers for anti-association activities.