‘Mischief Playing Out, There’s No Crack In ANLCA’ – Mustapha

BY EGUONO ODJEGBA

The Chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Alhaji Taiwo Mustapha has said that ANLCA is not going through a fresh crisis and slammed peddling such rumours including online news outlets that went to town with such report as being sensational and compulsively feeding on evil narrative thrown at them to wet their appetite for bad reportage.

Mustapha equally described the purported resignation of the Chairman of the Association Electoral Committee (ASECO), Chief Alloy Igwe as no big deal and non issue at all.

The board chairman asserts that whereas an association as big as ANLCA is not precluded from misunderstanding once in awhile, he was emphatic that there is nothing close to crisis in the present circumstances, and warned fifth columnist and those who do not wish ANLCA well to seek avenues to positively engage themselves and leave the association alone.

It will be recalled that Igwe has through few online media thrown up news of his resignation as a crack in the house; therefore appropriating for himself a central authority, a posture the BoT Chairman faulted as a wishful thinking; further noting that the former is merely seeking ways to cover suspected wrong doings.

“Let me first of all address this issue of irresponsible report that we are having another round of crisis, we are not. We will not allow fifth columnists to create animosity in our rank. One expect that when a journalist is given information about our association, he should call me or the national president to hear our position.

“So l am very disappointed especially with those reporters close to ANLCA, why must anybody be wishing for crisis for us?”, he lamented.

Addressing Igwe’s posturing, he said, “Alloy knows what he is doing. When we finished the election, he was expected to write a report but he failed to do so. The Board made two formal requests and he never responded.

“Before NECOM election, he requested initially for N9million for the election, it was later raised to N13million but eventually we released N15million to them. Total money realised from sales of forms from contestants was about N8.6million. I pleaded with chapter chairmen to contribute. And this was money contributed by the chapter chairmen to enable us conduct the election because there was no money in the association’s account. We brought out N1.5million from old NECOM account, and l added N1.5million from my personal pocket.

“We released N15million to ASECO chairman so that we don’t get to the middle of the way and begin to have issues but asked him to submit a report of the breakdown of how he spent the money after the election, sadly, he refused.”

According to the BoT Chairman, some ASECO  members started requesting for flights and accommodation claims, which he explained made the financial report even more necessary.

“Meanwhile, all the other ASECO members who were his subordinates claimed they didn’t have any direct access to fund, and that they spent their personal money on flight and accommodation and were not reimbursed. So we wrote two letters, and no response.  We held a board meeting and decided we were going to dissolve ASECO. When he got wind of it, he quickly put up his resignation letter. Out of seven members of the board, five of us supported reconstitution of ASECO while two were against”.

A letter from the BoT signed by Alhaji Taiwo Mustapha to the ASECO Chairman dated November 9, 2023 with the theme ‘RE: NECOM ELECTION REPORT’ urged ASECO to act on an earlier letter dated September 25, 2023 to prepare a comprehensive report of the expenditure made out of the N15million released to it for the purpose of the election.

Again on January 19, 2024, a reminder was addressed to the leadership of ASECO on the same issue. The letter concluded with the following; “Please note that all receipted expenses to be accounted for must be forwarded with original receipts. Please take this as important and urgent request from the board.”

Mustapha said that up until Igwe’s resignation in the media, the ASECO Chairman did not do as requested, and note that the purported resignation is personal, “and that shouldn’t cause any rancor in our midst.”

The BoT Chairman asked Nigerians, stakeholders and members of the association to disregard the report of crack in ANLCA, and said that Aloy lgwe is still part of ANLCA.