The President, African Association of Professional Freight Forwarders and Logistics of Nigeria (APFFLON), Otunba Frank Ogunojemite has commended the Federal Ministry of Transportation for probing the Registrar, Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN), Barrister Samuel Nwakohu over allegations of financial recklessness, poor management and high handedness leveled against him by the CRFFN management staff in a petition dated 25th August 2020.
APFFLON President Ogunojemite disclosed that the CRFFN Registrar, Barrister Samuel Nwakohu was queried by the Permanent Secretary of the ministry in Abuja last week and asked the ministry to make public its report of the query. He said if the registrar is found guilty, he should be made to face the music to serve as a deterrent to others.
While briefing newsmen in his office in Lagos yesterday, Ogunojemite said since Nwakohu came into office, he turned CRFFN into his empire ruling with impunity believing that he was above the law without consideration for the development of the profession and freight forwarders.
He noted that since Nwokohu boss took over the leadership of council, things have nosedived for the council as it could not perform its statutory functions and had rebuffed all efforts and suggestions by key stakeholders to salvage the institution.
To check the excesses of heads of government agencies, he urged the government to carry out a periodic assessment of all government agencies in the maritime sector.
“So, we now want to use this opportunity to thank the Minister of Transportation for allowing the Permanent Secretary to demand an answer from the Registrar on the allegations leveled against him. We want to use this medium to commend them for taking the bold step to start while we urge them not to relent. We will appreciate it if all the allegations could be made public and the process of investigating them made public and transparent so that the issue will not be swept under the carpet.
“We are all aware of the allegation of misappropriation of funds and how the Council is being run generally that is not helping our industry especially before and after the Covid-19 pandemic where we were facing a lot of trouble in the maritime industry of which we expected our Council to be of help. So, a lot of allegations were being leveled against him ranging transfers and lack of capacity building that we expected from him which have not been done.
“We will love to see the investigation process made public and let us know what is being done so that justice can be seen as served so that at the end of the day. The outcome of the investigation can lead to the improvement and efficiency of the Council,” said the APFFLON President.
Leave a Reply