SHAMEFUL: Miscreants, Okada Riders, Peper Sellers Hired to Vote In CRFFN Elections

…NAGAFF Sweeps ANLCA Under Carpet, Clinch Highest Votes

By DAPO OLAWUNI

The elections into the governing council of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) has been marred by gross misconduct in Lagos, as thugs from Mushin, Oshodi, as well as pepper sellers allegedly partook in the voting process.

DAILY TREND NEWS correspondent who was on ground during the process noted that there was massive vote buying by many of the contestants, and majorily of the large crowd were not known faces.

Meanwhile, results from the elections have started trickling in.

In Lagos, Alhaji Tanko Ibrahim scored highest votes with 179 votes, Ndubuisi Uzoegbo 147 votes, Tochukwu Ezisi 110 votes, Ekemezie Joseph 72 votes, Farinto Kayode 72 votes, Ejike Metu 63 votes, Ozo Chukwura 55 votes, Festus Ukwu had 4 votes

At Western Airports and Land Borders, another NAGAFF candidate, Timothy Awogbemi pulled highest vote of 145 votes, followed by Engineer Chukwunonso.
Yinka Bakare 9 votes, Henry Orarotimi scored 1 vote.

From Abuja chapter, Princess Chi Eze, a candidate of National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders defeated ANLCA’s Hajia Bola Muse and Muktau Yau by margin of 224, 90, 91 respectively.

At the Eastern Airport and Land Borders, Former NAGAFF President, Chief Increase Uche defeated Chief Azubuike Ekweozor by a large margin of 121 to 2 votes.

As it stands, the general winners from the Land Border & Airport Operational Zone are;

a. Princess Chi is leading with 224 votes.
b. Timothy A. = 145 Votes.
c. Increase Uche = 121 Votes.
d. Noni Brown = 120.
e. Alhaji Muftau Yau = 92 Votes.

Western Zone overal winners are;
a. Ibrahim Tanko = 179 Votes.
b. Ndubusi Uzuegbo = 147 Votes.
c. Tochukwu Ezisi = 110 Votes.
d. Farinto Kayode = 72 Votes.
e. Ifeanyi Ekemezie = 72 Votes.

Eastern Ports winners

1. Henry Njoku 63 votes
2. Bala Rabiu Lawan 54 votes
3. Ishiaku Ifeanyi Goddy 52 votes
4. Kingsley Offor 44 votes
5 Christopher Okafor 26 votes

Speaking on the conduct of the election in Lagos, one of the observers, Mr Emmanuel Onyeme said that right from begining of the accreditation process, there have seen a lot of anomalies.

“We have seen Okada riders, tomatoes and sellers are now part of CRFFN as of today, it is a shocking experience to me.

“People who don’t even know what is “Airway Bill” that has to do with the airport, or the “Bill of Laden” that has to do with the seaport, you can see they are part of the people voting.

“I am an agent for one of the candidates contesting and I have seen a lot.
I am seeing a large turn out compared to the last elections”

Also speaking, Dr Segun Musa, National Deputy Vice President of NAGAFF stated that 70 percent of participants in the election were touts from Mushin and Oshodi.

“We can observe teething problems in this election, I hope that the next one is better organised than this. It is obvious that there was poor preparation.

“70 percent of the people here are miscreants from Oshodi, Muslim and different areas, we observed that some insiders in the CRFFN printed receipts of CRFFN membership in Port Harcourt, Abuja, Enugu and they issued receipts in those names and allowed them to do verification here

“Because there is no proper arrangement and screening, it was an all comers affairs.

“As we speak, we have 70 of miscreants from Oshodi and Mushin whom we can identify, and they are here electing their principals, it is more like a money bag affair, the election is poorly organised

“There is possibility of litigation, if I am a candidate, I would have stopped this election.

On the CRFFN staff, he said there should have been a more rigorous screening of who should conduct the elections

“We observed that some of the organisers were telling the people whom to vote for, and in an election, such things have discredited the election. There was no screening, they just pick people from the streets” he said

On his part, Mr Ojo Akintoye lamented that it is quite unfortunate that at a period that the world is still battling to come out of Covid-19, CRFFN was conducting elections under a jam-packed environment.

According to him, there was no social distance, even the conduct of the election is not well organised.

“Compared to the way we conduct elections in my own association, this one looks barbaric.

“CRFFN have allowed touts to hijack the process of this election. The moment they allowed the individuals to vote in this election, this is the cause of all we are seeing today.

“How can we identify the individuals here today? Even the logistics aspect of this job has associations, everybody should have come under their corporate identity and carry out this election” he lamented