Progressive Maritime Association of Lagos Swears In New Executives

0

Prince Segun Oduntan (Left) Chairman of ANLCA at Tin Can Port, receiving an award of excellence confered on him by Progressive Maritime Association of Lagos (PMAL). The award is presented by President of Oodua Maritime, Chief Oye Ariyo on Wednesday


…Honores ANLCA Tin Can Chairman Oduntan, Late Kayode Oyinlola

By DAPO OLAWUNI

The Progressive Maritime Association of Lagos (PMAL) on Wednesday inaugurated new set of executives to pilot the affairs of the group for the next two years.

At an elaborate ceremony which held at the Tin Can Island Port in Lagos, the association confered a posthumous award on its late founder and former Chairman of Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) at Tin Can Island Chapter, Prince Kayode Oyinlola as well as the incumbent Chairman, Prince Segun Oduntan for being an excellent leader.

The newly inaugurated executives are ; Anifowose Dada Ayodele as Chairman, Shobande Idowu as Vice Chairman, Akinbola Ahmed Rotham as Secretary and Adekoya Samson as Treasurer.

Wife of Late Prince Kayode Oyinlola, former Chairman of ANLCA at Tin Can, Alhaja Modinat Oyinlola receiving a Posthumous award on behalf of her husband. The award is presented by President of Oodua Maritime, Chief Oye Ariyo
Prince Segun Oduntan, ANLCA Tin Can Chairman (4th from left) with the newly inaugurated executives of PMAL

Others are; Adebare Saheed, Financial Secretary, Alaba Shuaib as Assistant Secretary, Olugbemi James as Chief Whip, Lukeman Olugbade as Social Secretary and Jamiu Adams as Public Relations Officer.

Speaking on operational challenges at the port, Chairman of the occasion, President of Oodua Maritime, Chief Oye Ariyo charged the new executives to be united and speak in one voice to address members challenges.

According to him, the traffic gridlock experienced around Tin Can Port today is as a result of extortion by NPA officials and the deliberate closure of the access road by the construction company so as to extort money.

Speaking with our correspondent, the newly inaugurated Chairman of PMAL, Mr Anifowose Dada Ayodele said the group was established since 2008, by former Tin Can ANLCA chairman Late Prince Kayode Adetayo Oyinlolu who used his resources to gather some promising youngsters among the custom brokers and freight forwarders together.

He said the essence of the group was to address bottlenecks in trade facilitation and cargoes clearance, as well as to promote and protect the interest of custom brokers/freight forwarders in the industry, and support all the Government Agencies operating in the industry.

“Prince Kayode Oyinlola was the Patron of the association until his demise when we the members now decided to register the Association with cooperate Affairs Commission (CAC) on 4th of March 2019 with CAC/lT/N0125486.”

“My promise to the association and my fellow colleagues in the clearing and forwarding profession at Tin Can Island Port is that wherever the challenges are, especially with Customs and Shipping companies, we would resolve them and put things in order”

“We promised that we are not going to compromise, the government have been taking us for a ride for many years, and it is as a result of our past leaders, but we are out today to make amendments”

In terms of the alleged extortion on the Tin Can port access road, the PMAL Chairman said freight forwarders would have embarked on strike last week, but the government agencies pleaded for more time to address challenges.

“This was why we calmed down, we want to see if the situation would be addressed or not.
As God has given me this position today, we would look into the extortion and we would stop it” he said

Also speaking, Chairman Board of Turstees of the group, Mr Olayiwola Kamorudeen Kareem also known popularly as KayKay, said PMAL is a pressure group meant to correct the shortcomings of major associations and to call their attention to certain challenges that needs to be addressed in the industry.

“The problem of the freight forwarding industry is the supremacy battle between the associations, and this is why they could not solve our challenges, we as members of PMAL are the ones on the field, we know where the shoe is pinching us, but we cannot do much without the major associations”

“Ours is to give them advise and support. We are the ones feeling the brunt of the challenges inside the port”

“The board would continue to support the new executives, wherever we need to give them advise and support, we would render it”

“The reason we awarded Oyinlola is because he is the grand patron of the association from the beginning, the association was formed in 2008 and late Oyinlola was the one that nutured it”

“Before he died, he handed over the pressure group to Prince Segun Oduntan charging him to support and ensure growth of the association. Few days later Oyinlola died”

“Since Oduntan became our grand patron, he has been rendering support to us” KayKay stated.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Share
Â