ANLCA 2023: Supporters’ Draft Oduntan Into Vice Presidential Race

BY EGUONO ODJEGBA

Prince Oduntan

Today, Arewa members of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) together with their counterparts in the Oodua and Igbo groups were at the association’s national secretariat, Amuwo Odofin Estate Lagos to pick the vice presidential ticket nomination form for Prince Segun Oduntan; saying they want him to be running mate to Mr. kingsley Emenike Nwokeoji.

Alhaji Audu middle with the form, surrounded by other supporters

This is coming barely a week after a group of leaders of thought within the association led by Barr. Raymond Oyimba procured the presidential nomination form for the quintessential former Vice President, Mr. Emenike Nwokeoji.

Oyinba had described Nwokeoji as an institution and a board room custom broker, whose leadership acumen he explained was the reason for drafting him into the presidential race, assuring that Nwokeoji would deliver the association from what he described as its “current state of anomie and ruin.”

Speaking in the course of picking the form, Baba Alhaji Audu leader of the Arewa Group in ANLCA  said they believe that Prince Segun Oduntan has the political sagacity and wherewithal to be able to provide effective backup to Nwokeoji as Vice President with the task of turning around the fortune of the association; give its members a sense of belonging and stop ANLCA from further drift.

He said, “On behalf of the Arewa maritime group, Abuja, Kano, Maiduguri, we are here to support Prince Segun Oduntan. We of AREWA maritime are here to pick the nomination form for him, to support him to contest and win the presidential ticket as Emenike’s running mate.

“We are not happy with the situation ANLCA is now, so we are looking for a great man that will carry us along and bring back us back to the right track.

“We need government of national unity, somebody that is going to unite our association and to carry everybody along, and to sanitize the system. We are not here for writing petitions to Nigeria Customs or CRFFN, we are here to work to make our members and our association great again.”

Also speaking during the purchase of the nomination form, Brother Chukudi Ike faulted the presidential interest of Dr. Kayode Farinto, describing it as an aberration to the association’s presidential zoning arrangement, and declared that Igbo members of ANLCA has one more term after the tenure of Tony Nwabunike tenure.

“I happen to be one of the front runners for the support of Emenike Nwokeoji, at least to complete the tenure of the Igbo in line with the zoning arrangement which has given us a pedestal for peace and equity. And I’m a full believer and I will continue to support it anytime, any day. That’s why I am now saying that it is not yet time for the Yoruba to come into leadership, because I worked with President Olayiwola Shittu for eight uninterrupted years of two terms.

“So we here to do today to pick the form for Prince Segun Oduntan of Settle Systems as the vice presidential candidate, we want him to run with Nwokeoji. When we came to purchase nomination form for Nwokeoji as presidential candidate of our association, we told you we will come again. Today we are here to pick a form for our darling vice presidential candidate, Prince Segun Oduntan, the Chairman Settle Systems.

“From the name Settle, we will be settling all the wrongs of the past in the association; we are on a rescue mission. The Nwokeoji/Oduntan Team wants to rescue ANLCA from the doldrums’. We got to a height which was very, very enviable under the able and legendry leadership of Prince Olayiwola Shittu. He took ANLCA to a very great height and today, some of us, seeing ANLCA in a shadow of itself, we don’t feel happy. That’s why we have come to pick the forms, we know that some people have been talking for some time.

“But we have come and we are now talking absolute, some have been talking abstract, now we want to talk absolute. By the time we finish this, the campaign proper will start and then our members and other people will hear of this rescue movement from all the zones.”

Chief Ike says the pair of Nwokeoji and Oduntan will reconstruct, rebrand and re-launch ANLCA into the enviable heights it was when Shittu and Nwokeoji left office in 2018 before the locust years set in.

“Honestly, Emenike is a seasoned maritime practitioner of yore, he worked closely with the most brilliant and the most successful president of ANLCA, Prince Olayiwola Shittu, and I know that he will carry on from where we stopped and now rebuild. He is coming for a rescue mission, to rescue ANLCA.

“Remember that Prince Oduntan was Chairman in Tin Can Chapter at the time, when you look at their joint ticket (Nwokeji and Oduntan), it gives you hope and assurance. To rescue ANLCA means to reunite, focus and work, not to abuse or blackmail institutions and establishments”, Ike said.

Also speaking, Kabiyesi Waidi Ajibola Sadiku noted that ANLCA is presently in a trouble state and requires people with vision and character, influence and clout to embark on its rescue, as against those without capacity.

He said, “We are here to support Omoba Segun Oduntan to contest, to be the running mate to Emenike Nwokeoji. We have been getting it wrong for quite some time and as a family, we must take steps to get it right. We did not come to the port to do unionism, but along the line, unionism joined us together. We are here together with our brothers from the east, west and north, to pick form for our able brother, as vice president.

“I don’t want to talk much, but I want to say we don’t need hustlers in this business any longer. We need leaders who can use their money and influence to take us to a very enviable height. ANLCA is in a trouble state, we need people who can fix the problems, not people who will be adding to it, a hustler is more concerned about himself and not the association.”