CRFFN: Clandestine Moves To Reinstate Abubakar Tsanni for 2nd Term Revealed

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…Freight Forwarders Call for Individual, Not Association Voting

…Calls for Rejig of 5-Registered Associations by Council

By DAPO OLAWUNI

There are indications that strong forces within the freight forwarding associations, as well as some politicians in high places, are trying to ensure that the immediate past Chairman of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) Alhaji Tsanni Abubakar comes back for a second term in office.

Investigation by DAILY TREND NEWS revealed that some freight forwarders in the first tenure are already pushing that voting into the next Governing Board be carried out through association representatives, a process which was fraught with high level of corruption in the last election.

Speaking with our correspondent, reliable sources within the Council noted that the appointment of Abubakar Tsanni for a second term has already been done and dusted, adding that there is an agreement among the past Council members to repeat the same election method that brought them into office in their first term.

“They have agreed that Tsanni should do a second term and they want to vote along that line” a source confirmed to our correspondent.

“You know the process and method by which both the CRFFN Chairman and the Registrar got into office, it was through ‘imposition’, who voted him into the Council?” another source told our correspondent.

In October 2018, Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi appointed Abubakar Tsanni to become Chairman of governing board of CRFFN, even though freight forwarders kicked that the appointment did not follow due process, adding that Chairman should have been elected from the Register of freight forwarders.

The freight forwarders raised an alarm and alleged at that time, that Tsanni was not even a freight forwarder.

Chairman of CRFFN, Tsanni Abubakar

Apart from this, the last governing council elections which held in 2018 saw the “Selection” rather than “election” of 15 freight forwarders as members of the Governing Council of CRFFN.
All the candidates that entered for the election emerged winners in a sharing formula agreed by the five accredited freight forwarding associations that produced the candidates.
Independent candidates were disqualified weeks before the election in what was allegedly designed to pave way for the “sharing formula”
Going forward, freight forwarders have now vowed to kick against a repeat of the same fraudulent process whereby some of the candidates were allegedly made to pay N500,000 in order to clinch the nomination form from their associations.
President of African Professional Freight Forwarders and Logistics of Nigeria (APFFLON) Otunba Frank Ogunojemite in a chat with DAILY TREND NEWS argued that in a conventional environment, there shouldn’t have been a vacuum in the CRFFN since the tenure of the past Council members expired 2020.

According to him, at the time the former council members were leaving office, there should have been a caretaker or interim that would be put in place to conduct an election.

He argued that “If the election would hold, it must be different from usual elections in the past, there must not be selection this time around, there must be a democratic election based on individuals, nobody should hide behind an association, we must do an assessment of the people who wants to be on the governing board”

“We must evaluate their qualifications, they must prove to us who they are, what they have done and what they intend to contribute, so that we would know whom to hold responsible in terms of inefficiency”

“If they fail to go by individual, some people would be de-enfranchised, section 4 of the CRFFN Act made provision for the individuals, if it is in the Act, I dont know why it cannot be practiced” he said

Otunba Ogunojemite also called for a review of all the five registered freight forwarding associations with CRFFN, saying that many of them are no longer meeting up the required expectation.

“There are requirements for an association to be registered under CRFFN, some of the requirement is that any association that is not paying their dues should be de-registerd, are they following law?

“Being registered by CRFFN doesn’t mean you would be there permanently, but because the management of CRFFN are not performing well, they could not carry out the assessment they are supposed to do.

“How many individuals are even up to date in their dues payment? It is due to the inefficiency of the CRFFN, the Council itself needs to be reviewed.

“Investigations have shown that after the last elections, none of the associations have paid dues to the CRFFN, I cannot blame the associations, it is because the CRFFN is not living up to expectations” Otunba Ogunojemite said

Also speaking with our correspondent, a maritime activist and Cordinator of Save Nigeria Freight Forwarders Importers and Exporters Coalition, Chief Osita Patrick Chukwu argued that the immediate past CRFFN Chairman, Tsanni Abubakar must not be allowed to return.

“Tsanni cannot come back because the matter of the Governing Board I already in court, bringing him back would amount to subjudice, because the person in question is already facing a court matter, he is involved, he never got it right in the first tenure, if he had gotten it right, nobody would go to court, what is he coming back to do in the second tenure?

“In the first tenure they did, there was no positivity, so what is he coming back to do? The people proposing his second term are enemies of the maritime sector” he said

Chief Osita proposed that an individual election and not association representation must be used in bringing up Governing Board into the CRFFN.

He warned that “Anybody that does not have a license must not be voted for. If we want to get the best people into the Council, we must assess them on individual basis”

“Why the Council failed was because some associations felt that they are habitar and untouchables who have right to select people into the CRFFN”

He called for a probe of the past two governing board of the CRFFN. He also commended the Transportation Ministry for the probe of the Registrar of CRFFN, adding that EFCC and ICPC should be brought into the matter.

1 thought on “CRFFN: Clandestine Moves To Reinstate Abubakar Tsanni for 2nd Term Revealed

  1. Please let me thank you for the opportunity of revealing this to us and of course stanne firm to state categorically that the PTML has missed the track by discussing with the people that their power is limitless to determine what they actually needed. Increase the cost of logistics has nothing to do with the Association but rather the Federal Government which the Nigeria Shippers Council represents. Please leave those going to look and think they are going enrich them self through what we call a conflict or interest. Those individuals cannot and shall not speak for generality of the individuals freight forwarder, the stake holders or the government. Finally warning we cannot support any increase now. Covid era have touched all the facciets of the economy and throw the rest redrees base on what the sale out individuals has portrayed in the maritime space to Nigeria Shippers Council for appropriation. All mentioned in the meeting lacks the capacity when they should be working towards saving the country and it’s citizens of the catastrophically invitation future wise. Any move without a due process will amount litigation so PTML / GILMALDI MANAGEMENT BE WARNED

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