How police is fueling crisis in ANLCA, by Farinto

…All ourt judgements against trouble makers will be enforced henceforth

The leadership of Nigeria’s foremost freight forwarders’ body, the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) has decried alleged complicity of the Lagos State Police Command in the festering crisis in the association.

It said that it is surprising that the Lagos Police Command which in compliance with the directive of the Inspector General of Police in a letter to it, dated February 24th, 2022, that nobody should disturb the duly elected National Executive Committee (NECOM) of ANLCA led by High Chief Tony Iju Nwabunike, authorised two police officers to be guarding the headquarters of ANLCA on 24/7 basis, turned around last week Wednesday and released several of its men to the expelled members to enable them force their way into the facility to hold an illegal meeting.

Making the allegation in Lagos, the Acting President of ANLCA, Dr Kayode Farinto, said that the Commissioner of Police in Lagos, CP Abiodun Alabi is to be blamed for the recent alleged invasion of the association secretariat by the alleged fake BoT and hoodlums.

According to him, the CP is empowering the dissident group to carry out illegality at the association’s national secretariat “and he needs to explain his role in the ongoing crisis.”

His words: “The issue on ground now is because the police is culpable, especially the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, in the sense that when two people are fighting, by virtue of your position as an umpire, you’re supposed to do what is called dispute resolution or bring the two parties together. Yet each time that party meets with him, he is always obliging their requests despite whatever agreement he might have had with either party.”

Farinto added that the police is also making the implementation of court judgements difficult with the way it is going about the matter.

Similarly, the National Secretary of ANLCA, Abdulazeez Babatunde Mukaila said that the Lagos CP allowed himself to be used for illegality by the other party when he gave them backup policemen to have access to the national secretariat for their illegal meeting. He said he believes that when all facts of the matter are presented by both sides, the CP will have a good understanding of the situation.

Speaking earlier, The Vice Chairman of the ANLCA Board Of Trustees (BoT), Prince Ozo Chukwura had said that henceforth, the Board would ensure the enforcement of all court judgements the association has secured against the expelled members of the association, of whom are now masquerading as BoT members and fomenting trouble in the association.

Briefing newsmen after the Board’s meeting in Lagos, Prince Chukwura, said that they have been seeking peace all along and hoping the dissident members “would return to the family to settle amicably, but now enough is enough, We will test the court and know who is in contempt of court and who is on the side of the law”.

Ozo Chukwura also called on the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) not to take sides in the matter or support illegality, following the recent unlawful invasion of its national secretariat by the alleged expelled members.

He reiterated that the present BoT which came into power in 2020 at the Owerri Annual General Meeting (AGM) is the authentic Board and the recognised one, adding that the fake board is only out to destroy the peace of the association and disrupt activities of the Tony Iju Nwabunike led regime.

Price Chukwura said: “We are here to tell the press to help us inform the world about this crisis in ANLCA that has lingered so much. The board has taken some serious steps and resolutions to stop it.

“From the time that our president was here, even before he travelled out, we have done all to bring peace, but it seems like it is not wanted. They insulted our president and as a result were suspended, although when we pleaded with him to pardon them, he did and restored them. He has been doing virtually everything he can to make peace reign; we all started as one, and it is an association of equals, but some people are beginning to feel like they are more than others.

“They have instituted so many court cases against us, and we also have against them, and we have won all. Judgments were given, yet they have refused to bow to the law. We had our elections on the 13th of February, 2014, where the past boards were elected, and their tenure expired in 2020. Now, we are in 2022, yet some of them are still claiming to be in office.

“A lot of things have happened; one of the past board members went to court and returned with a judgment, which I have here with me; it states that the president (Nwabunike) should not recognise the authority of the third defendant (Taiwo Mustapha) as a member of the board and a board chairman, it was issued on the 11th of October 2019 by the Federal High Court.

Even in the CAC, they are not recognised as members of the board, yet we keep watching them and the person in question is still parading himself as a board chairman, contrary to this judgment, Price Chukwura said.