ANLCA Airport Chairmanship Tussle: Adewusi Files for Appeal, Stay of Execution, Says ‘I Remain Chairman’

By DAPO OLAWUNI

Chairman of Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) at Muritala Muhammad International Airport (MMIA) Chapter, Prince Bamgbala Adewusi has directed his members and the general public not to lose sleep over the recent court judgement which purportedly sacked him from office.

DAILY TREND reported exclusively on Thursday that a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos under Justice P.O Lifu passed a judgement on 5th of May 2023 and declared Prince Bola Ashiru as the authentic Chairman of the chapter.

However in a chat with Journalists at the chapter Secretariat on Thursday, Prince Adewusi said that he has filed for an appeal of the judgement and Stay of Execution on the court judgement.

He urged all members to remain calm and go about their businesses as he still remains the Chairman of the chapter.

Prince Adewusi told journalists that the said court judgement was passed based on a fake letter presented by his opponent, Bola Ashiru purportedly disqualifying him from contesting
the election held on 15th of February 2022.

He insinuated that the purported fake letter was obtained by Ashiru from the disgruntled former Chairman of Association Electoral Committee (ASECO) Barr Raymond Oyimba who never served him (Adewusi) a copy of the letter.

Speaking, he said “I still remain the Chairman of MMIA platform, I got the court judgement through our WhatsApp platform, it was never served on me, my lawyer briefed me properly that the judgement was passed based on a forged letter.

“The letter in question was given to my opponent supposedly by the former Chairman of ASECO, stating that I was disqualified, meanwhile the procedure of disqualification is for you to serve the letter on the affected candidate, not his opponent, the letter was not given to me, the BOT and the NECOM also confirmed that the letter was not given to them, this means that the letter remains forged, and my opponent who took it to court must tell us who gave it to him.

“According to him, he said that ASECO led by Mr Oyimba gave him the letter, Oyimba did not serve me that letter, and I am not aware of any disqualification.
This letter was used by the Judge to pass their judgement and this is unknown to me.

“I have briefed my lawyer to go to Appeal Court and to Stay Execution of the Judgement, everything has been done and sent to the National headquarters of ANLCA.

“I have two Customs licenses which I put on the receipt that was used to purchase my nomination form, we were supposed to have our elections in 2018, but due to the crisis in the association, it lingered for some years.

“As at 2018 when I took my license, the license was perfect, nothing was wrong with it, it was in 2019 that the license was hacked at Apapa by bad agents to carryout illegal jobs, it was not only my license that was affected, many other licenses were also affected.

“Based on directive of the National President, all the affected licenses were submitted to the National Secretariat for reclaim, and the money they asked us to pay, I paid it all. So, the national was aware of it.

“When they were talking about our elections in 2020, I wrote to the National Secretariat that I have another license that I can use for the election, nobody queried me, and I changed the license to Batolab Investments, the National instructed ASECO on what to do, this was even before election.

“The letter to Introduce the new company was also written before the sack of the former ASECO Chairman and he had nothing against it.

“The new ASECO also saw all the documents and they gave me clearance because I am more than qualified. When the election list came out, my name came out based on Batolab Investments, not on the other license, my opponent did not go to court, but after lost election, he is now saying that my license is not qualified” he said

Our correspondent gathered that on 15th of February 2022, the Airport Chapter election was conducted and Prince Adewusi defeated Bola Ashiru with 21 votes margin. He is currently one year into his tenure.

While passing a message to all practitioners at the MMIA Chapter, the chairman said “My message to my members is for them to keep calm, there is no problem at all, and I still remain the Chairman of this chapter, the case has been appealed. My supporters are not troublesome, we follow due process, I don’t believe in violence, we have done the right thing by filing the appeal and stay of execution and we have sent them to National Secretariat.

“There is no crisis at the airport chapter, the people gave me their mandate, I am doing my duty as Chairman, what happened is an inhouse matter” he concluded