With the Govening Council election of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarders in Nigeria(CRFFN) rescheduled to take place on 9th March, 2022, Independent candidates in the race are protesting their exclusion from the election by the management of the Council.
Recall that the Minister of Transportation, Hon. Rotimi Amaechi had directed that election be conducted across all the approved zones for every interested candidate without the earlier adopted sharing formula of 6-6-1-1-1 by the accredited associations. This represents the number of representatives from each of the five registered associations.
However, a score of the independent candidates has alleged that the Registry of the Council, Barr. Sam Nwokehu blanked them out from the electioneering activities and relevant information.
According to one of them, ” He has been relating with the accredited associations while avoiding the individual contestants. He has issued a series of official letters to the associations requesting that they update their membership annual subscription. We find this absurd because the CRFFN management has the contacts and addresses of all existing registered freight forwarders but never deems it appropriate to communicate us. This act has kept the independent contestants sceptical with the entire arrangements.”
Another independent candidate argued that they have been technically and administratively disqualified from the contest even before the screening and election because they cannot lay hands on the CRFFN register for members’ data to reach out to them and canvass for vote like the accredited associations.
They asserted that this lopsided treatment has undermined the transparency and the integrity of the forth coming governing council election.
Asked why the Registrar could be flouting the Minister’s directive by excluding the independent candidates, one of them alleged that he could have been spured by an unwritten agreement reached between the CRFFN management and the accredited associations on the sharing of the Professional Operating Fees(POF).
While the Registrar could not be reached for comments on these allegations as at press time, MMS Plus gathered that he may have been acting on instruction from above because he knows the consequences of disobeying his boss.
With many of the independent candidates expected to throw in the towel because of the administrative disqualification, the founder of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders(NAGAFF), Dr. Boniface Aniebonam has directed the accredited associations to boycott the election if the Federal Ministry of Transportation insist on holding the election on the basis of independent candidature. He argued that it negates the essence of the associations.
But findings show that the CRFFN Act of 2007 upholds the independent candidature. NAGAFF is one of the accredited associations.
Recall that the election earlier scheduled for October 9th, 2021 was put on hold as a result of the controversy over sharing formula and independent candidate among the body of freight forwarders.
According to a Public Notice dated February 28, 2022 and signed by the Chairman of the Electoral Committee, A.D Suleiman, the election is now scheduled to be held in Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja respectively.
Guidelines for the conduct of the election, the notice said, shall be given at the screening venue.
The notice reads, “Sequel to the expiration of the two years tenure of the Governing Board of Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN), the Honourable Minister of Transportation in the exercise of the power conferred on him by Section 2 (1) (f) of CRFFN Act 2007, has constituted an Electoral Committee to conduct election into the Governing Board of the Council. The Act provides that an elected or appointed member of the Governing Council shall hold office for a period of two (2) years beginning from the date of election or appointment as applicable.
