Otunba Ogunojemite centre flanked by his Vice President to his right and the secretary to his left.
Story by Dili Utomi.
“All the so called accredited associations under the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) must be de-regisstered with immediate effect as they have not been meeting up with their obligations to the Council”. This is the observation of Otunba Frank Ogunojemite, the president of the Africa Association of Professional Freight Forwarders And Logistics of Nigeria (APFFLON). Otunba Ogunojemite made the assertion at the headquarters of the association while fielding questions from journalists after the restructuring of the executive committee positions and the subsequent swearing in ceremony of the members of the Apapa chapter of the association.
From right to left, the Apapa chapter chairman, his vice and secretary.
The event saw some floor members becoming executive committee members, these include Ibrahim Hassan who retained his position as the chapter chairman, George Nwokedi as the vice chairman, Casmir Ezeoke as the secretary, Peter Arinze as assistant secretary, Stephen Nwaolise as treasurer, Ifeanyi Nwankwo as financial secretary and Abiodun Olufunke Omole as the welfare officer.
Some executive members of the chapter that were newly sworn in.
While answering the questions thrown at him by the press men, the president said that the petition written by his association to the CRFFN is meant to rouse the Council to live up to its responsibility of treating every registered member or association equally and to work towards their unity. He noted that section 19 of the Council act says that you must be registered with them before you can practise, but that APFFLON’s investigation shows that all the so called accredited associations have not paid the annual dues or regularised their accreditation for over five years now thereby making them illegal entities as the act says that you have only up to six months to regularise you accreditation or you stand de-regisstered. He also buttressed his point by saying that these so called accredited associations have not been filing their returns to the Corporate Affairs Commission thereby also making them technically speaking, illegitimate. Otunba Ogunojemite noted that the Customs and Excise Management Act provides that a body must be properly registered with the CAC before they can be licensed by the Customs, but that there has been so many anomalies in the system.
The APFFLON president emphasised that APFFLON should in the same consideration be accredited as they have met all the required conditions for registration. Otunba Ogunojemite frowned at the case where the sum of One Hundred and Nine Million Naira was said to have been used in the training of freight forwarders, but that evidently the sum of Two Hundred Thousand Naira was given to ANLCA and NAGAFF, while ARFFN, NAFFAC and NCMDLCA got One Hundred and Forty Thousand Naira each as he noted that these figures do not add up.
The vice chairman of the Apapa chapter of the association, George Nwokedi as well as the chairman, Ibrahim Hassan encouraged the new executive members and indeed all members to observe the ethos of the association and work towards the success of the association.
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