Mr. Temitope Akindele aka Ijoba, the newly elected Chairman of ANCLA MMA chapter Says … Am duly elected as new chairman
The claims in some quarters that a sole administrator would be appointed to run the affairs of Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA) Chapter, from Monday January 14, 2019, following the expiration of the term of office of incumbent administration of the association, instead of the newly elected leaders, has been described as mere rumour, empty threat and illegal.
The newly elected Chairman of the Association, Mr Temitope Pius Akindele, popularly known as ‘Ijoba’ who claimed ignorance of such development he described as false, misleading, and illegal noted
that it has no basis in the association’s constitution and should be regarded as an empty threat or a mere rumour..
Akindele who claimed he doesn’t have the knowledge of such development, told journalists at Lagos airport today that any person or group of persons, taunting such idea is spreading mere rumour, making empty threat because any attempt to appoint a sole administration to run affairs of the association, after an election has been duly contested, won and certificate of return issued by the electoral body to the winner, is illegal because it does not have basis in the association’s constitution
The term of office of the incumbent administration of ANLCA at Murtala Muhammed Airport Chapter led by Chief Aloysius Nze expires today Sunday, January 13, 2019 and a new administration of elected members under the leadership of Akindele is expected to take over by Monday January 14, 2019.
According to Akindele, “It was well known fact that Western zone of our association was due for elections. We have nine chapters in the western zone. And the body that is charged with the responsibilities of conducting the elections is the board of trustees. The board of trustees would appoint an Association of Electoral Commission (ASECO)to conduct the elections”..
He said that ASECO called for elections as scheduled, and since he had the intention to contest elections to the office of the Chairman of Murtala Muhammed Chapter of ANCLA based on his antecedents, he obtained the form to contest the election from ASECO. The renowned clearing agent said he went through the screenings and election was held and he came out victoriously, because people voted for him.
According to him, “The certificate of return was issued to me by the electoral body. The copy is with me. Successfully, election was called for, I went to contest at the election, won the election and a certificate of return was issued and presented to me. “The fact is this there is nowhere, from section one to section thirty three of our
supreme constitution, which specifies that a sole administrator should be appointed.
The elected have to come out for elected offices. It is normal that when elections are held, there could be grievances from one person or the other. By the special grace of God, the term of office of the seated chairman will terminate on January 13, 2019. The certificate has been given to me to occupy that very seat come January 14, 2019, that is, on Monday. So there is nothing like interim or appointment of a sole administrator to run the affairs of the
association at Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA) Chapter. Absolutely there is nothing of such. I am the duly elected chairman for MMA chapter of ANCLA from January 14, 2019 onward. No contention. I have not heard, learnt or witnessed any grievances anywhere against my election. It must be a rumour and there is nothing of such in our
association. We don’t have issue with anybody, we are one and there is no crisis.
The Managing director of Green Starline Nigeria Limited who insisted that the election was free and fair and without any objection from any notable person or group of persons, after he was declared victorious, explained that the election was witnessed by the five members of the board of trustees of the association who acclaimed it as free and fair.
“By special grace of God , the condition to hold an election ANLCA is; five members of the Board of Trustees took their time to be at the venue of the election and witnessed the entire process. Ordinarily only one or two of the trustees were supposed to be there; but they knew that this zone has the largest number of chapters of the association, that means everybody, every respected person that was expected to be in attendance including pressmen, was in attendance and witnessed the elections of five, Apapa, KLT, Seme, PTM and MMA chapters that were held. There were no elections for other chapters which were not due for election. The elections in chapters in Western Zone that due for elections were held accordingly,”’
On his immediate programme for the members of association on assumption of office, the incoming Chairman said his number one priority is to professionalise the business of clearing agency at the chapter.
He said this would be done through training and re-training of members to improve their knowledge on the business. “Number one I believe and appreciate the efforts of the outgoing chairman, Chief Alloy Nze. He has started very well and ended very well. Because I believe he has done the much he could do for the association and I promise to start from where he stopped. And part of my manifestoes is this; there are lots of things that are supposed to be done that have not been done in this environment. I would start with training for our members. Majority of our members would have to go for trainings. They need more knowledge of about the job. I would go for their trainings. I am going to organise seminars, trainings and workshops. They would go for trainings at least three or four times in a year , there are going to be certificated courses for them so that when it comes to professionalism of the job, they should be equal to it by the time they stand before officials of customs, and other government agencies. They should be able to make use of the customs tariff where an item is supposed to be specified and coded.
“I also want to ensure that this environment is safe for my members to carry out their businesses. When you look around here the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) is supposed to be the custodian of this airport environment, but if you look round you could see there are local canteens that are not too hygienic and save for the people to have their meals. FAAN cannot do it all. We need very neat canteens that would not be too expensive where my members can have their meals.
On welfare, he promised to embark on the retirement plans for members of the association that are above 65 year of age while a housing programme would be embarked upon for every member to have landed properties.
He also said “members that are above 70 years of age and don’t have houses of their own would be given free plots of land to develop and occupy,” he explained further,” In this job, there is little or no gratuity or benefits after retirement, that is why I plan to make provision through good welfare packages to take care of our members either in active service or on retirement. We would encourage anyone above 65 years of age to go home and rest while we would be given them stipends at the end of every month many of our elderly ones here who are supposed to have retired can’t go because there is nothing to fall back to at home on retirement.”
