The ANLCA logo.
Story by Dili Utomi.
The Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANCLA) prides itself as the oldest Customs Licensed Agents body because it was said to have been founded in 1954 to represent the interest of Nigerian Customs Agents who were not treated well by the then colonial overlords.
There was an election in September 2023 which heralded the emergence of a new president, Emenike Nwokeoji along with his executive committee members and there has been relative peace in the association, but things may spiral out of hand if feelers from some chapters are anything to go by.
Now, this write-up is inspired by some information that we got about some underhand attempts to foister some level of illegality on the members of a well known chapter of ANLCA at the Western Zone. The greatalternativenetwork.com learnt that some aspirants to the next election are trying very hard to become candidates in the upcoming election by climbing in through the proverbial window.
In the midst of the confusion that had earlier occurred, a caretaker committee was said to have been put in place pending the time that an election will be conducted. There were certain guidelines that have been guaranteed by the ANLCA constitution which conveys the power of an elected chairman to any caretaker committee chairman too.
One of the rules in their constitution that has to do with matters of election is that any aspirant who picks up a form has a column where the sitting chairman has to append his signature to affirm that the aspirant is a financial and bonafide member of that chapter. Apparently, some members of the association picked up the forms to contest in the upcoming election which is right by the ANLCA constitution, but the problem is that they do not recognise their caretaker chairman and did not present their forms for him to append his signature as a way of confirming their bonafide membership of the chapter of the association.
These aspirants picked their forms to contest the elections over three months and counting and did not do the needful, now the election period is closing in and they are trying to go the illegal way of obtaining the needed endorsements. Some members have affirmed that these aspirants are now trying different tactics to try and legitimise their candidacy.
One is that they met the outgone chapter chairman whose tenure expired over a year ago to sign their forms for them, but this is unconstitutional. They have now come to the realisation that the caretaker chairman’s signature is really needed and are trying to intimidate him into countersigning the columns, this is in order to present themselves as eligible candidates. The constitution of ANLCA states that if you disregard any section of the election guidelines, you are automatically disqualified and ineligible to contest the election and there is the crux of the matter right now.
The association electoral committee chairman, Elochukwu Obiora who has been credited with conducting credible elections in the past has vowed to conduct more credible elections and will not stand for any underhand tactics by anyone to win elections and he has the backing of the national president, Emenike Nwokeoji and the board of trustees chairman, Taiwo Mustapha. It will now be very interesting to see how all these shenanigans pan out in the light of the obvious circumstances.
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