ANLCA postpones Tin Can Chapter elections – as crisis in the association lingers

By Dapo Olawuni     |             

The Chairman of Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) at Tin Can Island Port, Prince Segun Oduntan , has revealed that the Board of Trustees (BOT) of the association has postponed elections into the chapter due to the lingering leadership crisis in the association.

Oduntan said that his major achievement at the Tin Can Port  was to have restored peace and confidence of Nigeria Customs Service and other government agencies in licensed customs agents which hitherto has been severely damaged.

He said “Our major achievement at Tin Can has been peace, even for a nation to grow, there must be an atmosphere of peace for investors to come in, during the  three years as Chairman of Tin Can Island chapter Chairman of ANLCA, we have been able to achieve this, and that is why you see that Tin Can Island port has been able to attract all forms of imports, despite the impediments of the bad roads”

“Within my three years at Tin Can Port, I have served two Customs Area Controllers, Comptroller Bashir and present Comptroller Musa MBA. In these three years, we have delivered on our electoral promises, we promised to get a bus for the chapter and we have been able to do that, we promised them good healthcare, today if you go to my chapter twice in a week, you will find a nurse and a doctor”

“For the elderly ones, we have fulfilled what we promised them. We have been able to do health insurance, it was the first in ANLCA, we did it with Niger Insurance”

Though he admitted that management of people is a difficult feat to achieve, he however said his administration has set a record at the command such that by the time he leaves office, anybody that takes over from him cannot go lower.

“I have been able to maintain a regular supply of light at the secretariat, throughout my three years in office, there has never been complaints about light. The generator we met on ground were maintained, we are paying rent and yet we don’t have any ticket or subvention from anywhere”

“I am not a revenue generating chapter, if anybody says he is generating revenue, let them bring the proof, the only person giving us money is Port and Cargo and they give us N150,000 per month, meanwhile I am using diesel of more than N120,000 per week, and I have been doing that for the past three years, mostly from my pocket and sometimes from the goodwill of my members and other people.
For the rent in the secretariat, we are paying N1.5 million”

“If you are not somebody with a strong client base and you have your job, you cannot be a Chairman at Tin Can, people will not respect you and this would bring down the association” he said

Speaking on the leadership crisis in ANLCA, the Tin Can Chairman described it as a family issue that would soon be resolved internally.

On this, he said “There has been some little crisis in ANLCA but it is a family crisis which by the time it is resolved, it would still be in our house. For every union man or politician, your aim is to complete what you have started, our election is supposed to have taken place like two months ago, but because of some constraints about court cases, we have about six court cases in ANLCA and this has even affected our electoral body”

“So, we had to write to the board who are in charge of the elections and they told us that nobody can do any elections for now, and that in lieu of these crisis, I should still hold on and continue for a little period when the crisis is solved, that was their reply to me when I wrote them as per our situation” he said