After about five years of schism and restiveness in the foremost freight forwarding association in Nigeria, the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), the federal agency charged with the regulation of freight forwarding in the country, Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) has restored peace among the two warring factions of the group, collapsing their two separate Board of Trustees into a single 8-man BoT. Coming on the heels of CRFFN sponsored Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the association in Lagos, CRFFN Chairman, Alhaji Tsani Abubakar, had disclosed that the decision to collapse the two BoTs into one was reached at the closed door meeting as the AGM took off.

He said that once this was agreed by the house the next thing would be to set up an election committee and come back on Thursday next week for a NECOM meeting during which the election timetable would be announced. The Chairman had also named members of the election committee. Speaking on the development, the Acting National President of ANL CA, Dr. Kayode Farinto stated to the members of the association that the industry and members had suffered for the past five years and so the need to make peace. “What we are having today is a political solution.

I allowed you all to vent your anger because you have the legitimate right but we need to move on for peace to reign. We have witnessed colossal losses and I am happy that we are coming back together,” he said. Farinto urged members to key into CRFFN and be registered, adding that by the end of this year, if they were not certified and were practicing, they could go to jail.

“We have collapsed two structures, the old and new Board and the next AGM we will have soon, we must confine the role of our Board to what is stated in the Company and Allied Matters Act (CAMA). This crisis has exposed ANLCA and made people know that the role of the Board is meant to be advisory. But we had a situation where the Board was taking executive function,” he said. Farinto further reminded members of the association that the crisis has had a serious negative impact on the association, adding that this was killing their profession. Farinto also alleged that some agencies, including some customs personnel in the ports, were happy about the crisis and in fact fueling it. He said that the number of alerts has risen from five to 10 as some customs officers continue to take advantage of the crisis in the association. The AGM also inaugurated an enlarged membership of the election committee which included Mr. Alloy Anogbulu, Mr. Tope, Obi Elochukwu, Samuel Obi, Lekan Babalola, Erastus Olawo and Sanusi Adebayo. The Acting Registrar of the Council, Mrs. Uromta, in her reaction to the peace achieved, said she was happy that the crisis was resolved. She disclosed that the issue had given the CRFFN Governing Board Chairman, Abubakar, others and the entire CRFFN administration sleepless nights on how to settle the crisis.