By CHIAZO OGBOLU

Only those licensed or are directors of companies licensed by Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) are qualified to attend the 2023 Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA).

The Acting President of ANLCA, Dr Kayode Farinto, made this known at a news conference in Lagos on Monday.

He, however, said that corporate members of ANLCA were qualified to attend the AGM slated to hold on March 15 at Eko Hotels and Suites, Lagos.

“To comply with the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) letter addressed to me on Feb. 10, the national secretariat of ANLCA kick-started the process of organising the AGM as contained in the ANLCA Supreme Constitution.

“This time around, the National Executive Committee (NECOM), in its magnanimity, reduced the processes due to the current economic situation in the country and in a bid to carry everybody along.

“For you to attend the 2023 AGM and any ANLCA AGM, you must have a licence or be a director of a company licensed by the NCS or a corporate member of ANLCA.

“A token of N10, 000.00 being the 2023 annual due should be paid, while every other due and condition were waived. This was agreed to make sure nobody is left out,” he said.

According to Farinto, those desiring to attend the AGM must pass through the normal processes as contained in the ANLCA Constitution.

“I have done mine and I expect others to do theirs. For the records, the data base of ANLCA members is domiciled in the national secretary’s office, and anybody that wants to attend the AGM must clear his/herself in that office.

“I want to state that anybody that goes somewhere to collect licence without clearing from the national secretary’s office to authenticate the genuineness or otherwise of such a licence will not be accepted.

“ANLCA is a constituted association, and we all agreed to follow our constitution. That is sacrosanct,” he said.

Farinto said that the process of conducting the 2023 NECOM Election would be part of the decisions to be taken at the 2023 AGM.

According to him, the tenure of the current NECOM will expire on April 16.

“I want to tell you emphatically that this NECOM will not stay one extra day in office.

“As such, in accordance with ANLCA Supreme Constitution, within 90 days to the expiration of any NECOM tenure, election must be held to bring in new leaders, and the 90 days started counting from February.

“I implore members to dust their documents to contest in any positions of their choices,” he said.

On the crisis that hit the association past four years ago, Farinto said that all efforts to resolve it did not yield any result.

He noted that CRFFN had waded into the matter.

“I want to also state it clear here that even though some of us from ANLCA are members of the Governing Council of CRFFN, we were never part of the committee set up by the council to resolve ANLCA crisis, and neither did we influence its report.

“The allegation of the council turning the report in our favour is baseless, mischievous and cheap propaganda to truncate the peace process,” he said.

He appealed to members of the association to eschew bitterness, envy and bickering, but work toward building a new ANLCA.

“As our country Nigeria is moving towards a new dispensation, ANLCA should do same for the betterment of our profession and the industry,” he said. (NAN)

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