Freight Forwarders Pass Vote of No Confidence on CRFFN Board, Demand Probe By EFCC, ICPC

By DAPO OLAWUNI

A group of maritime activists; Save Nigeria Importers, Exporters and Freight Forwarders Coalition (SNIEFFC) has passed a vote of no confidence on the presence governing board of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) alleging that they have failed woefully.

Cordinator of the group, Dr Osita Patrick Chukwu in a press briefing in Lagos on Wednesday said the group is going to court to challenge why the CRFFN governing members have failed to call for elections into the Council even when it is obvious their tenure has elapsed.

Osita said CRFFN has failed woefully on the major task and mandate given to them by the freight forwarders which is to create a conducive environment for them to practice.

He called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) to beam their searchlights and probe budgetary allocations to the council and what they have done with it.

“CRFFN has not shown any single result as delivery of their mandate to the people, we are disappointed in them.
Their tenure has expired, and yet they are there riding on 2020 hilux vehicles, what have they achieved in the council? The Minister of Transportation positioned the council negatively by putting their loyalists in place, this has made the council not to have the theet to bite on the ills facing freight forwarders”

“The Council is a regulatory body belonging to freight forwarders, but today the government has taken over, it supposed to be an affair of freight forwarders, anybody without freight forwarding experience should not be there, but now, they have taken 50% of the Council while only 50% is left for freight forwarders”

“The government believe we are touts and that is why they would not allow us run our council by ourselves. If CRFFN is run by professional freight forwarders, it would be more successful than it is right now”

Dr. Osita said there is need for the transportation Minister to call for a townhall meeting over the CRFFN, and to ensure that the various freight forwarding associations do not constitute the governing board of CRFFN by nominating their members.

According to him, it is the associations that have killed CRFFN through self agrandisement, many of the candidates pushed into the CRFFN Governing Council does not have what it takes to deliver, they are not even freight forwarders.

“Their tenure has expired, we are telling them to pick their loads and go home, they have not done anything, they have been working on POF all the time they have been there. If you have spent two years as a member of any council or commission, and you have failed, then you have to be changed”

“All they do is travel to Dubai, do retreats and meetings here and there.
How many members have they trained? All the moneys given to them by the government have not been well utilised, it is only in CRFFN that I see that there is no auditing of account, after a regime finishes, another one continues without auditing them, what is EFCC and ICPC doing? Can’t they go into CRFFN and ask questions? They need to investigate what they are doing with their yearly budget”

“Freight Forwarders are dying at the port, and yet CRFFN board members are being given a 2020 Hilux jeep, and they are telling us to come and pay POF of N2,000, may God have mercy on all of us”

“We are going to court by next week and we would serve them papers, let them quit that office and stop parading themselves as board, they should quit that office because they have failed.
The board management is total rubbish, its a group of associations that have gathered themselves together, all they are after is membership fees and issuing ID cards and collect POF, is that all a council is supposed to be about?
We would not allow them to bastardize the council for our children yet onboard” he vowed

The port activist lamented that Nigerian freight forwarders are dying of hardship, he said it takes not less than six months for them to get a single bill of laden to work upon, and after this, they are frustrated at the port by different policies, so much so that they cannot even make a single profit.

He argued that the freight forwarders at the ports are experiencing myriads of challenges including delays is cargo delivery due to 100% cargo examination, bad access roads for trucks, lack of holding bays, delays in returning empty containers among others.