B-R-E-A-K-I-N-G: CAC Cancel Afolabi led ANLCA CI

BY EGUONO ODJEGBA

After what looked like an interminable suspense, the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) have taking the bull by the horn by thrashing the Board of Trustees (BoT) fake Certificate of Incorporation (CI) of the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) it is believed was misled to issue to a BoT faction led by giant industrialist, Dr. Taiwo Afolabi.

Pinnacle Time can report with authority that the fake CI issued in September 2022 under unclear circumstances has been canceled and marked X as displayed at the CAC’s website, a development our reporter gathered was informed by the need for the CAC to regain its groove as an integrity driven corporate registration institution.

It will be recalled that Dr. Farinto Kayode, a former acting National President of ANLCA and Chief Ozo Chukwura, member of the irritant factional board had showed off the fake CI in a group photograph with Dr. Afolabi, whose appearance in the said photo analysts say conveyed one of apparent reluctance; despite some other pundits saying that appearance can be deceptive.

So far, there has been no report about Dr. Afolabi disowning the fake CI or disassociating himself from the activities of the ANLCA factional board and that of the former National Executive Committee (NECOM) led at different time by Iju Tony Nwabunike and Dr. Farinto Kayode; which a chieftain of ANLCA, Mr. Joe Sanni say has expired and sacked, having failed to exit honorably.

Recall further that the interim NECOM before it was directed to cease further activities by the authentic Registered BoT led by Alhaji Taiwo Mustapha to protest the introduction of violence and bloodshed, refused to speak on the Oluwole CI, saying it has no intention dignify the infantile lies and reprehensible misrepresentations of facts about the association leadership status, which produced the controversial CI.

The hitherto interim NECOM National President, Mr. Pius Ujubuono in a statement availed the port industry, Nigerians and the general public at large facts about the ANLCA crisis and the status of its authentic leadership represented by the Alhaji Taiwo Mustapha led Registered BoT, said “is deliberately being hidden away from the public.”

The statement titled ANLCA INTERIM NECOM STATEMENT OF THE INCONTROVERTIBLE FACTS ABOUT ANLCA CRISIS THAT IS DELIBERATELY BEING HIDDEN AWAY FROM THE PUBLIC reads:

“The Registered Board of Trustees (BOT) of ANLCA, led by Alhaji Taiwo Mustapha is determined not to dignify the fraudulent documents and pictures making the rounds presently on the social media. As law abiding citizens since the crisis erupted in April 2018, there are hard and incontrovertible evidences/facts in the public domain and before the law courts, to negate all that has been pushed out to the media, especially the maritime genre.

“The registered BOT shall therefore keep its distance from what Kayode Farinto, Mukaila Abdulazeez, Eniola Igbaroola and Ozo Chukwurah are trying so hard to make the public believe, while the various courts and the law enforcement agencies do their professional jobs.

“We have endured these hardened violators-with-impunity of valid and subsisting court orders, since 27th December 2018 (FHC/L/CS/2155/2018), to 11th October 2019 (FHC/L/CS/1274/2018), to that of 29th June 2020 (FHC/L/CS/599/2020) and to the most formidable of all the court orders on 26th of August 2020 (FHC/L/CS/921/2020), to that of Justice Lewis- Allagoa on 25th March 2021 (FHC/KN/CS/79/2021), which nullified their purported Owerri-BOT elections.

“The order has remained unchallenged till date. Despite disclaimers put out by the Registered BOT with CAC-issued certificate dated 16th of January 2020, that Owerri-BOT kept disturbing the peace of the Association.

“We as law-abiding members of ANLCA should continue to be patient, believing that the Almighty God we serve, shall not let us down. We can be a little bit more patient for the courts to pronounce that all the violations they have committed since Justice Rilwan Aikawa gave the order for NECOM to stop parading themselves as National Officers of ANLCA, are all null, void and of no effect since 26/8/2020.”

The statement signed by Mr. Joe Sanni, the association interim Acting National Secretary said the Registered BoT and its overwhelming majority supporters which has remained law abiding since the beginning of the crisis in 2018, will continue to carry the public along by availing Nigerians all the truth about the matter, including the position of the law courts in the matter.

Also reacting, Leader of the Western Zone, Sir John Ofobike aka Dan Katsina appealed to Dr. Afolabi to protect himself against been dragged in the mud by some persons he described as morbid adventurers and power mongers who will deploy whatever foul means possible to retain or take power.

His words: “Henry Njoku and his goons are the problems of ANLCA, he is the brain behind ANLCA’s crisis. All he wants to do is to be the altar-ego, the alpha and omega. He uses ANLCA to make his fortune, and he wants to continue to get rich using ANLCA, but his day of judgment is near.

“It is therefore very unfortunate that Taiwo Afolabi…l have known him as a gentleman, l am surprised how he got himself involved with characters like Njoku and Farinto and the gang. All these people will only mess him up. They are using Afolabi to sponsor their illegal BoT and illegal tenure extension, which they plan to use to destabilize ANLCA.

“But l want to assure the general public and our teeming association members that the Afolabi procured certificate of BoT will not stand the text of time. No matter how long and no matter how far a lie travels, truth will catch up with it at the appropriate time. We were at the Commissioner of Police office at Ikeja when the police discovered the fake judgment they secured at an Abeokuta High Court to mislead the CAC.”

Greatly troubled by the unpleasant dimension the association leadership crisis took recently following the rude and criminal sack of a general meeting called by the interim at the Tin Can Apapa Chapter premises, by hired hoodlums, which left a member Wale Cole with serious injuries, Alhaji Mustapha ordered the immediate wind down of all leadership activities.

He explained that the action was not only to protest the ugly development in the rising cases of attacks which has led to blood spilling by the other faction, but also to prevent the possibility of a future recurrence.

A man of peace and impeccable integrity, Mustapha explained that his camp and the majority of members of the association loyal to his camp are determined to await the outcome of the Reconciliation Committee set up by the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) to investigate the crisis and come up with a recommendation.

“We want the association to bounce back in a better way, and we believe that after this crisis, ANLCA would have a rebirth. The Secretariat would remain locked down because the tenure of the former NECOM has since expired.

“I am more concerned about members’ safety and security, not because the expired NECOM want to over-run anybody, this is not out of being weak, they have tried it before and they couldn’t succeed, they tried it now again and they still failed.”

He continued: “All the court cases are still there, we had agreed at a point that we would withdraw all the court cases, and if for any reason, judgment on anyone of the cases comes up, we would abide by whatever the court says.

“We are saying it emphatically that we believe in CRFFN, and we believe in the law of the land, whatever comes out of the court or CRFFN, we would abide by it.

“We are putting it to them (expired NECOM) that, if they want peace, we are ready for peace, but if they want war, let them go to their villages to go and war, we are no longer interested in having anything to do with them if they fail to embrace reconciliation.

“There is no way we would leave ANLCA for them, but what we are saying is that, rather than any of our own side to keep holding activities that would warrant reaction from them…because if Wale Cole had died, it could have been a different ball game.

“In order to avoid that, this is why we at board level is appealing to our interim government, all our chapter chairmen and all our supporters to suspend all activities in ANLCA for now, pending when, either the CRFFN or any of the court judgment comes up to resolve the issues.” he stated.

Although it is not quite clear why the the CAC decided choose to act suddenly to clean up the case and restore confidence on both sides of the divide, grapevine report indicate the CAC’s action may not be unconnected with the involvement of the federal ministry of transportation, believed to have resolved to recreate the freight forwarding sub sector with the needed impetus driven by probity, best practices and corporate governance.