ANLCA Board Crisis Takes New Turn as Police Steps In, Invites 3 for Questioning

ZION Olalekan |

The crisis plaguing the Board of Trustees (BOT) of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) has taken a turn for the worse as the Nigerian Police Force on the directive of its Inspector General (IG), Ibrahim Idris invited for questioning, three stalwarts of the body.

Major actors in the crisis who were invited included; Chief Henry Njoku , a former Chairman, Board of Trustees of ANLCA who is still laying claim to the position, Aare Sani Shittu , a former Vice Chairman of the Board as well as a former President of the Association and Chief Peter Obi a current member of the Board .

It was reliably gathered that they were invited over a petition sent to the Inspector General of Police by the current executive of the BOT to the effect that as members of the Board, the trio had in April 6, 2018 written an unauthorized letter to the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) directing that it should not allow any other members even the current Chairman of the Board, Alhaji Taiwo Mustapha to have access to the file of the Association.

While Aare Shittu who had abstained from voting in the April 13 election to choose a new Chairman of the Board in which Alhaji Taiwo Mustapha eventually emerged the winner was said to have reported to the Police at Alagbon, in Lagos, while the two other invitees were yet to honour the invitation.

However, the Police was said to have quizzed Shittu on the development before he was allowed to leave after which they were said to be awaiting the visit of the other two members for their own statement even as investigations continued on the matter.

However, all efforts to get across to Chief Njoku to get his comments prove abortive.

It will be recalled that Aare Shittu who has been a long time member of the Board quit about three months ago over the unabated crisis at the ANLCA BOT.

Investigation showed that the petition which prompted the invitation of the three Board members was due to the fact that the order they gave to the CAC made it impossible for some of the five members of the Board who are currently running its affairs, including the current President of the Association, Honourable Tony Iju to have their names listed as members in the file of the Association with the CAC.

The trio it was alleged had given the order to the CAC without the usual meeting of the Board and a resolution to that effect while the message was alleged to have been conveyed on a cloned letter headed paper since the valid one was in the custody of the Secretary of the Board who was not one of them.

The Current Board had discovered the anomaly when it sent its lawyers to the CAC to perfect the documents of the Association and include the names of its members, then pay the penalty for submitting additional names as it is the convention, but was told that the file of the body was on ‘Caveat Emptor’.

The leadership crisis had erupted after the Board election in April13 this year, when Chief Njoku refused to recognize the outcome of the Poll on the basis that he was not the one who called for the election.

Efforts made by the President of the Association to resolve the impasse has however not succeeded but Alhaji Mustapha insisted that he is the only Chairman of the Board as majority of five members voted for him saying that he would however not plead with the other members to join the Board but that they are welcomed if they wish to come over.

Already , the entire chapters in the South Western Zone part of the Association has expressed their allegiance to Mustapha as the Chairman of the Board while they also recognized Chief Dennis Okafor and Prince Taiye Oyeniyi as Vice Chairman and Secretary of the Board respectively.