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| • Former Customs CG; Alhaji Dikko Abdulahi and Founder of NAGAFF; Dr Boniface Aniebonam |
• “Maybe there are two NAGAFFs” ---- Customs Officer
A cross section section of freight forwarders have expressed doubts about recent claim by the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) to the effect that it has been granted Customs operations license.
The NAGAFF had recently broken the news of the license and urged members of the association to take maximum advantage of the novel development. It also advised that other associations should take a cue from the development and be forward looking too.
The NAGGAF license is one of the few developments before the exit of the former Comptroller General of Customs, Alhaji Dikko Abdullahi.
But, some members of rival associations have expressed doubts about the license; they challenged NAGAFF to produce the license, if truly it exists.
They expressed doubts that the Nigeria Customs Service will issue operating license to an association.
Responding on the controversial license, National Coordinator of Save Nigeria Freight Forwarders Importers Exporter Coalition (SNFFIEC); Sir Patrick Osita Chukwu said NAGAFF is only misleading its members and the public.
He challenged NAGAFF to scan the operating license issued by customs and make it available to the general public for confirmation.
Osita reiterated that it goes beyond mere talk by NAGAFF to say that the customs issued an operating license saying that it negates the CEMA.
He argued that since NAGAFF is not a company, operating a customs license is illegal.
Osita also stated that there is need for government to probe the ex-Customs CG boss if truly he approved an operating license for a freight forwarding association.
Osita argued that except NAGAFF transmutes into a corporate organisation, it is inappropriate for it own a customs license as an association.
He however maintained that if NAGAFF wants a license, it should convert from association, then change its board trustees to board of directors, before it can be issued an operating license legally.
Also, a chieftain of the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Frank Aliakor told Shipping Position Daily correspondent, that it is an anomaly for customs to issue operating license to a freight forwarding group.
Aliakor stated that move is to disregard and also to ridicule NAGAFF as an association.
Aliakor argued that it is an erroneous act by Customs, stressing further that a company is different from an association.
The licensed customs broker noted that what the former CG of Customs did if it happens to be real, is against the Customs and Excise Management Act, saying that maybe the former Customs boss probably only trying to appease the NAGAFF.
"We are yet to see them operate with that license, we only heard it in the media that the ex-CGC issued license to NAGAFF, but the way we are looking at it is that it is a way of ridiculing that association because an association is a pressure group that have interest of their people"
Expressing doubts about the customs license, the ANLCA member appealed to the association to make the certificate public.
But in his response, founder of NAGAFF; Dr. Boniface Aniebonam confirmed that indeed the association possesses an operating license from the Customs.
Aniebonam said that some practitioners in the industry lack knowledge about the profession which in turn creates doubts in their mind.
He said a corporate by can sue or be sued and as a company with shareholder an outsider cannot gain access to know those the board of directors, saying that it is a competent court that can only unveil it.
Quoting sections of the CEMA, the NAGAFF founder urged those in doubt to read sections 4,5 and 6 of CEMA.
"What is the problem and headache of those people"
"They should not involve themselves in something that does not really concern them, because in the first instance they are not members of NAGAFF", he told our correspondent,
But a senior Customs officer who was in the know about the NAGAFF license brouhaha told our correspondent over the weekend, that there is no way that the Nigeria Customs Service would give NAGAFF or any customs agents association an operations license.
Even though he pleaded anonymity because he was not authourised to speak, he confirmed to Shipping Position Daily also last weekend that, somebody is not telling the truth.
“I can confirm to you that, what they (NAGAFF) is saying is not the exact truth”, may be there are two NAGAFFs, he said.http://shippingposition.com.ng/article/produce-your-customs-license-stakeholders-dare-nagaff
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