ANLCA Decries Plot To Destabilise Tin Can Port

The Tin Can Chapter of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) has condemned the activities of what it described as a faceless group trying to cause chaos at the Lagos ports.

The reaction of the association came on the heel of an aborted  protest  penultimate week at the Tin Can Port by a group known as “Save Nigeria Freight Forwarders Group”. The group, comprising about eight persons, had stormed the Tin Can Port, chanting anti-Dikko songs, demanding his resignation as the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service. In its 14-point agenda, the group, which was eventually chased out of the port, chronicled the difficulties and the sufferings of freight forwarders which they attributed to what it called insensitivity and mal-administration of   the Dikko-led Customs administration, and asked the Customs boss to resign.

But in a swift reaction, Mr Kayode Farinto, the Chairman of the Tin Can Chapter of ANLCA and her Deputy, Barrister Ada Akpunonu, alleged that the group was  recruited, funded and being instigated by some selfish,  faceless and  disgruntled elders of the association to cause confusion.

The ANLCA chieftains, who dissociated the chapter from the protest, wondered why any responsible leader would want to involve  himself  in activities that are capable of disrupting the peace at the port.

Farinto, while describing the action of the faceless elders as despicable and cowardly, advised the sponsors of “this rag-tag group” to come out of their hiding to make their demands, which, he said, were self-serving.

He wondered why anybody would want to rise against the Customs boss at this time when he (Dikko) has opened a channel of communication with all the stakeholders which has now brought about peace at the port.

“This type of thing is uncalled for at a time when peace is gradually returning to the industry. Last year, we witnessed series of protests and confrontations between freight forwarders and the Customs arising from a communication  breakdown, but this year, the CG has initiated stakeholders meetings where the  two parties had ironed out their differences,” adding that the CG has even directed his commands to embrace dialogue.

Farinto expressed dismay that the sponsors of the protest  could not avail themselves of such channel of communication to ventilate their grievances, but instead resorted to a crude method capable of disrupting the fragile peace at the port.

Barrister Akpononu, however, noted that the recent attacks on the Customs helmsman was because of “his clean-up exercise’ which has led to plugging all the loopholes through which revenue is flittered away.”

“The antagonists  of  Dikko, despite his widely-acknowledged   achievements, are not happy with the new dispensation because it is no longer business as usual. They are frustrated and the only way they feel they could get at him is to sponsor attacks and demonstrations against him,”  the ANLCA Amazon declared.

She, however, warned those behind the  moves to disrupt the peaceful atmosphere at the port to steer clear of the Tin Can Port as they would be resisted by the peace-loving users of the port.

—Esther Komolafe