Customs agents protest year-long police closure of Airport secretariat, seek IGP’s intervention

The Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) Tuesday staged a peaceful protest, calling on the Inspector General of Police, Tunji Disu to intervene in the continued closure of its Airport chapter Secretariat.

Speaking during a press conference at the ANLCA Secretariat in Lagos, South West Zonal Coordinator, Femi Aniifowose accused the Commissioner of Police for Murtala Muhammed International Airport ( MMIA) CP Olufunke Ogunbode of deliberately refusing to reopen the Airport Secretariat for nearly a year despite a directive from the former IGP, Kayode Egbetokun.

Aniifowose said the continued closure of the Secretariat has affected the association’s operation and causing the the government to lose huge revenue.

“The issue here is about the Commissioner of Police at Murtala International Airport.command, Mrs Olufunke Ogunbode. She has locked our Secretariat for almost a year now. There was a signal from former IGP Kayode Egbetokun to open the Secretariat but she refused to honour it.

“We are a revenue-generating association for the Federal Government. When we are not settled in our office, we cannot organize ourselves in line with Customs directives and the government is losing money,” he said.

Aniifowose further alleged that the CP is colluding with a faction of the association still loyal to a former Chairman, Adewusi Bamgbala, whose tenure have since elapsed.

“We have some issues with some of our members. One was Adewus Bamgbala who spent almost 3 years in office and his tenure has expired And one person again just came in from the back door, Bola Ashiru but he has no customs license to practice. They have also deleted his company’s name from the Corporate Affairs Commission. And so he’s no longer a member of ANLCA but some of the stakeholders who are at the airport there, are supporting him,”

He, however, insisted that the leadership structure of the airport chapter has since been resolved with Tope Akindele elected as legitimate Chairman, yet the CP has blocked his resumption.

“Somebody has been positioned as the Chairman of that place, which is Tope Akindele but the CP has refused him to resume at the Secretariat because of what she’s getting from the stakeholders.And the stakeholders are not members of the ANLCA BOT, ” he
said.

Aniifowose further alleged that the CP has disregarded both a Federal High Court order and a directive from the Assistant Inspector General ( AIG) Legal, which affirmed the Board of Trustees ( BoT) as the legal custodian of the association’s assets.

“The BoT is the rightful custodian of our property, and we have a Federal High Court order to prove it,” Anifowose stated. “Despite the AIG Legal verifying this order and instructing the CP to release the keys, she has refused. She even demanded a written undertaking from the BoT Chairman, which he provided,yet the secretariat remains locked.

“We are law-abiding professionals, but our patience is being tested. We have tried to initiate dialogue, but she refuses to even grant us an audience. We are now appealing to IGP Tunji Disu to intervene before this situation escalates, because her action is sabotaging trade and national revenue, ” he said.