The ANLCA president, Mr. Emenike Nwokeoji at the interview.
Story by Dili Utomi.
The elections that were conducted for new executive committee members into the Western Zone chapters’ of the Association of the Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANCLA) on the 20th of February have come and gone, but echoes of the events still linger on.
It will be recalled that some chapters had their polls concluded on the night with the subsequent declaration of winners, but one of those chapters that had their results declared has some members yesterday, 2nd of March protesting the outcome of that election.
Prince Waheed Adeboje is a candidate for the position of chairman of the Ports Terminal Multi-Services Limited (PTML) chapter of the association whose opponent was declared the winner, but he and his supporters do strongly believe that the election was totally manipulated to favour his opponent at the election.
ANLCA has certain internal mechanisms for dispute resolution and their constitution forbids any member from seeking a legal redress outside these mechanisms promoting the agreived members to engage in today’s peaceful protest to the Dikko Inde house headquarters of the oldest Customs Licensed Agents Association in Nigeria.
A crowd of about 25 supporters gathered around the ANLCA Headquarters singing solidarity sounds and marching into the association’s secretariat. A few of the protesters spoke to us afterwards. Olanrewaju Ajidagba said “The Association Electoral Committee (ASECO) wants to slap us and get away with it, but we are not relenting in seeking justice, we want a re-run of the election “.
Prince Waheed Adeboje’s election monitor on the day of election was Chief Oluseyi Oke and he says that “the election was not free and fair. The total number of accredited voters was 69, the number of votes cast on the day was 48, the total votes declared was 65, but there was a discrepancy of 17 votes which the ASECO cannot account for up until today”.
The president of the association, Mr. Emenike Nwokeoji who drove into the protest addressed the aggrieved members and gave them the assurance that they will be listened to and their greiviances properly heard. He granted us an interview where he made some statements.
Mr. Nwokeoji said “The protest was all about the last election into the executive committee membership of the PTML chapter of our association and I have spoken to them and assured them of our desire to look into their greiviances. Even with the swearing in coming up on Thursday, we can still remove the declared winners from office if they have been found to have gained the positions through unfair and unjust means and our constitution specifies this”.
The ANLCA president added that anywhere in the world, elections hardly take place without one squabble or the other as we are all human beings, but that the modalities that have been put in place for accommodating the concerns of all is what matters. He notes that they have such a modality in their constitution and hopes that all parties will abide by the rules of the constitution in addressing this matter.
The main man who feels cheated in the election, Prince Waheed Adeboje also weighed in with his own submission on the matter. He said that “What happened on the day of the election is the worst thing that I would have expected in any ANLCA election of today. We all prepared to take part in the electioneering processes, met with all our colleagues and did all the legitimate things that should aid us to win the election as over 80% of members at the chapter wanted me to win the election which we really won because I scored the highest number of votes”.
“A telephone call that was mistakenly placed to one of our supporters, Ayo who bears that same name as another one on my opponent’s side revealed all the manipulations that took place on the day. Even though the telephone conversation happened before the election and was recorded, everything that the godfather in that telephone conversation said all played out on the day of the election and we have a copy of the telephone conversation”.
He continued “The ASECO disenfranchised a lot of voters as some of our members were not allowed to vote, but even at that, we won the election and we cannot allow a situation where you rob Peter to pay Paul to prevail as is being attempted in this case. Inauguration of the elected members is supposed to take place on Thursday, but swearing in my opponent is like endorsing illegality and trying to cause chaos, they should not be sworn in. Rather, we are the rightful winners of the mandate and should be sworn in promptly.
“We have written so many letters in protest against the illegality that took place at the election and have been trying to get justice through all peaceful means, but have not been invited for talks, we do not want to cause any problem, but we want justice. What we want specifically is that the ASECO should do the right thing and give us our mandate as the telephone conversion showed that money was used to manipulate the election. The figures shows that 69 persons were accredited, 48 voted, 65 votes were declared and 17 votes had discrepancies, but what was announced as results was ridiculous. We should be declared the winners of the election and be sworn in. Thank you”.
It should be noted that some level of calmness have prevailed at a lot of the chapters of ANLCA for some time now, but with such incidents as the one playing out now at the PTML chapter, one is tempted to ask whether the optimism expressed about peace has been more of reality or imagined.
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