Africa Association of Professional Freight Forwarders and Logistics of Nigeria (APFFLON) has blamed the current management of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) for the ongoing quagmire with the Governing Council elections.
The association made this claim in a press statement signed by its National President, Mr. Frank Ogunojemite earlier today.
According to the freight forwarding group, the continuous engagements by the CRFFN management has been restricted to only registered associations, a move termed to be a compromise by the agency ahead of the polls because the CRFFN Act recognizes individual members as well as companies.
“We wish to bring to public notice, the clear evidence of compromise on the part of the management of CRFFN. APFFLON is shocked by the body language of the Management of the Council which is roundly suggestive of complicity in the lingering commotion triggered by the proposed sharing formula for the CRFFN anticipated election.”
“The Registrar of the Council, in a letter dated 02/11/2021, and exclusively copied to leaders of associations, strictly inviting them and their secretaries to a meeting slated for 10th of November, 2021, at Rock View Hotel, Apapa, is a clear evidence that the management is in full support of the infamous 6:6:1:1:1 formula”
“It is very clear that Section 4, of the CRFFN Act, recognizes three categories of membership, namely, Associations, Corporate bodies and individuals. Why then did the Management of the Council not extend invite to the other two categories,” the statement read.
APFFLON stated that this development, as well as other infractions on the part of the management makes the industry to doubt the neutrality of the Registrar and his team in the upcoming elections.
APFFLON argued that the present CRFFN management is increasingly casting itself in bad light as emerging facts have shown that the Council itself is the bane of robust freight forwarding practice in Nigeria.
The group called on the Minister of Transportation, Hon. Rotimi Amaechi to closely watch the activities of the Council, stating that it needs to be sanitized because as it stands, the integrity of the management is in serious doubt.
“Flouting the Federal Ministry of Transportation’s directives on the election of members into the Council, by the present Management of the CRFFN justifies our call for immediate removal of the management as they are no longer fit to participate in the forthcoming election, otherwise the entire process will be jeopardized and the efforts of the Honourable Minister to transform the industry will be bastardized as well”
“We call on the Honourable Minister to take a firm stand to save the industry and not allow any individual or cartel to dictate or wrongly advise him against his resolution to carry out proper and in-depth reformation of the sector because Nigeria deserves to be among the comity of top maritime nations,” the group said.
