The Founder of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders, Dr. Boniface Aniebonam, who recently announced his retirement from the Association will surely be missed by members.
Aniebonam had announced he was quitting the association to give others a free hand to run it while speaking last week on the occasion of the Freight Forwarders Day which also marked the 20th Anniversary of NAGAFF.
But the Chairman, Ikorodu Customs Government Warehouse, Comrade Obinna Okafor, stated that the NAGAFF Founder will be missed by all as he described Aniebonam as a man whose shoes are too big for whosoever might want to step into that position.
Okafor described Aniebonam as a philanthropist and a man worthy of emulation, saying he had distinguished himself among others.
“His great service in the country have presented him as a selfless patriot, and I doubt that there will be anyone near as good as he is. He has continued to serve as a source of inspiration and a testimony to the fact that honesty, selflessness, and love for one another are tenets we all need to imbibe to build the nation of our dreams,” Okafor stated.
“He has attained lofty heights not just as an accomplished selfless freight forwarder but also in the committed service to the community, country and our common humanity.”
Okafor also used the opportunity to appeal to Nigeria Customs Service to ensure that all overtime containers which the consignees are ready to take delivery of, through their respective height forwarders, be expressly transferred to Nigeria Customs lkorodu Warehouse.
“Customs are in charge of overtime cargo movement, they have the political backing to control anything called overtime cargo, since we have all these overtime cargoes congesting the port and making normal clearing difficult, the consignees cannot take the delivery of their cargoes.Considering the demurrage, the shipping companies are not ready to come down, I have been opportune trying to help some people to get demurrage waiver from these shipping companies but believe me, they did not honour the request, the highest they can give you is ten percent.
“Consignments should be taken to government warehouse at Ikorodu to allow consignees who are ready to pay government duty take their delivery, then, any token they can pay to the shipping companies or NPA should also be paid. But because of the billions shipping companies are making, they don’t want to follow the due process,” he stated.
Okafor stressed that Customs are the owners of overtime cargoes, and as such, they do not need NPA approval because NPA has already concessioned the port.
Aniebonam, while giving his remark, stated that there were so many things going wrong at the ports which are now left for the Council of Registered Freight Forwarder Board to address in the best interest of the profession and the national economy.
He said his exit is coming at a time when the CRFFN Board has Rtd Col. Tsanni Abubakar and Chief Henry Njoku at the helm of affairs of the Council, adding that the two are best suited for the
job.
The President of NAGAFF, Chief Increase Uche, speaking earlier, said it was to the credit of the Association that its motto which is “ushering in sustainable freight forwarding practice” has become a big success.
Uche said it was the birth of NAGAFF that gave rise to the establishment of a government regulatory agency in the name of CRFFN to represent the interest of freight forwarders.
