ANLCA crisis: Over N250 Million lost to litigation, police cases
...over 19 court cases instituted by warring parties.
Segun Oladipupo
The crisis that rocked the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) for over five years gulped a whopping N250, 000,000.00 (Two Hundred and Fifty Million Naira) from both warring parties, the former Acting National President, Dr. Kayode Farinto and Secretary General of the group, Alhaji Abdulazeez Babatunde Mukaila have disclosed.
In separate interviews the two members told journalists that the sum wasted into court cases, police cases is well over N250 Million Naira.
Speaking at the 5th Global Leadership Summit organised by Searchlight Magazine on Thursday in Lagos, Alhaji Mukaila said 5he sum was more than N100 million.
The frontline freight forwarder who received an award at the 5th edition of the summit, reiterated that the crisis that rocked the association over leadership issues under the Tony Nwabunike led ANLCA would have been avoided but ended up enriching the Nigeria Police Force and lawyers respectively.
Babatunde who is the Chief Executive Officer, Mikkey Excellency Nigeria Limited in his estimation on monies spent during the uncertainty that rocked ANLCA , affirmed that the crisis would have been averted but individual ego tore members apart..
According to the customs broker, the association suffered setbacks through litigations numbering about nineteen cases under the period of the in-fighting adding that power tussle by the gladiators dragged ANLCA backwards.
He called on the new executives of ANLCA to constantly champion peace and harmony among members.
“We had about 19 court cases running from the fledging point to the point of discharge or going to appeal.
“Litigation is very expensive, we did that just for no reason, just pushing ego.
“If anybody has anything with me now, after the initial bragging, we will call the person to come and settle. In fact, I will be the first person to make the move because litigation, police matter, doesn’t serve any good
“It is a waste of time, resources and waste of energy. It is of no use. I won’t advise anyone to go through the line of litigation, it doesn’t make any sense.”
Corroborating the ex-scribe of the association, Dr. Farinto, speaking on the sideline with reporters at the NAGAFF 24th anniversary in Apapa on Friday, reiterated that the sum should be above N250 million.
“I don’t know where he got his facts from but I know it is more than N100 million, it is not less than N250 million.
“One hundred million is an understatement, it is very low to what the two parties lost, ” he submitted.
Dissecting the paper he presented, titled “Nigeria Economy, Bridging the Productivity Gap With Resilience,” Babatunde expressed optimism that Nigeria will be great once again noting that the numerous sectors in Nigeria has potentials to boost the economy.
Babatunde maintained that Nigeria still remains the power house of Africa’s economy but added that situation has been tough for over five years
He stated lack of manufacturing and production of goods have affected the nation’s economy growth pointing out that deficit in exports have continued to drive Nigeria backwards.
“The importance of the paper is to let the government and participants know thar the productivity gap is a function of many conundrum of events and until you start to tackle it, there cannot be any progress.
“Productivity is about what knowledge does the workers have, what capital.is available to the workers, what materials are available to produce and at what cost and what technological innovation do you have presently at par with what is going on globally.
“So the government needs to understand the dynamics and start putting more notice and putting in place, deficient structures that can aid advancement. That is the whole essence of the presentation.”
