By Eguono Odjegba

Amid worries that the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents, ANLCA, election slated for July 2023 may not hold, stakeholders and leading members of the association have advocated steps necessary to achieve enduring peace and to also promote the integrity of the forthcoming election.

It will be recalled that part of the present problems has been the inability of the Board of Trustees, BoT, and the National Executive Committee, NECOM, to come to agreement on certain knotty areas which hitherto included the license verification of members as prerequisite qualification for the election, which the NECOM has contested, saying the BoT has no justification to subject the Association Electoral Committee, ASECO, appointed by it, NECOM, to screening.

The disagreement resulted in a controversial National Executive Council, NEC, meeting last week organized by NECOM, but which ended in fiasco, as members engaged the organizers and their supporters in a heated long drawn argument which aborted the meeting, resulting in a fresh stalemate.

A chieftain of the association, Enekwechi Raymond Onyimba, said until interested persons from the South West Zone respect the existing rotational power arrangement that makes the 2023 presidential election the preserve of members of the Eastern Zone, there will be no way forward.

He therefore called on well meaning members of ANLCA, elders and former leaders to prevail on Dr. Kayode Colins Farinto, who is contesting the presidential ticket, and believed to be heating up the process to step down; noting that it is the single, decisive action that will resolve the political debacle.

Onyimba, in a statement titled, ‘‘Very Simple Solution To ANLCA Political Debacle’’, said: “Mr Farinto Kayode Should Step Down As Earlier Suggested By The BoT since it is not the turn of Western Zone.”

It will be recalled that the BoT, in a bid to find lasting solution to the association’s crisis, recently proposed that Farinto should give up his ambition, with a promise to rally support for his becoming president at the expiration of the tenure of the South Eastern candidate which will end with the election in question.

According to Onyinba, BoT should reconstitute ASECO and recommence the sales of presidential nomination forms to give room to any interested South Eastern member who may wish to contest the ticket.

He also broached the issue of venue for the election, saying it is the turn of the South West to host.

“Election will be conducted in Lagos and not elsewhere”, adding “Successful candidates in the election will heal the association and set it in motion where those genuinely searching for peace will see peace, simple. If this is done, every other thing will be added in the process”, he enthused.

Contributing, the Oodua Logistics Association, otherwise popularly known as the Oodua Maritime Forum, has charged stakeholders in the ANLCA family to submit themselves to the rules of engagement as outlined in the association’s constitutional provisions for the conduct of the election.

The Oodua Maritime Forum National President, Chief Aroba Oye Ariyo, in a letter addressed to the Chairman of the BoT, which was sighted by our reporter, warned that the group will not allow interested parties, no matter how highly placed or connected, whether as contestant, umpire, voter or supporter, act contrary to the dictates of the electoral laws as enshrined in ASECO, and as duly constituted by the BoT.

It stated: “While we pledge our full support and readiness to ensure smooth election process, the above demands are necessity so as to prevent any unwanted situation in the entire process.”

Meanwhile a number of stakeholders who have aligned with the position of the Oodua Maritime Forum even as they urged ANLCA members to unite against every divisive forces intent on deploying tactics and or actions that are not in keeping with the interests of the association, the electoral guidelines or the constitution of the association, as a whole.