By Bon Peters
The seeming fresh air of peace being enjoyed for nearly one year now in the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) may soon evaporate into thin air as a chieftain of the group, Mr Dennis Okwu, has alleged a clandestine and orchestrated plan hatched by some people whom he described as wearing the toga of The Nine Billionaires in the association, fighting tooth and nail to stop his aspiration as one of the contestants in the September 2024 BoT election to pave way for themselves and their cronies.
Speaking to select journalists on Tuesday in his office in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, Mr Okwu wondered why he would be schemed off from the election having paid the mandatory N1.5 million expression of interest form.
“Let me tell you, some people feel they are the only ones that are supposed to be in ANLCA. During the last NECOM election, many things went wrong but because we want ANLCA to speak with one voice, we didn’t go to court to challenge the election.
“Personally I have 1,000 reasons to go to court, but I said no, for peace to reign. Some of us should be commended for that, but instead what we are seeing now is an ANLCA that has been hijacked by one family,” he claimed.
Continuing, he said, “Let Emenike Nwokeoji, the ANLCA national president, come and tell us what he has done in ANLCA for almost one year now. We want to see his scorecard, only what is there, is ANLCA that has been hijacked by Earnest Elochukwu and his family and the national president is there as a puppet.”
Mr Okwu noted that he wrote a letter to the ASECO chairman and specifically copied Nwokeoji, explaining why the submission of his form could be delayed, especially when the letter has received the letter before the deadline, challenging anybody to the contrary to come out and deny it.
When contacted by this reporter, Mr Nwokeoji declined to comment on the matter on the basis that it “was already in court.”
“Did the man in question tell you he has gone to court?” he queried, and when responded in affirmative, he quipped that, “As a journalist, you should know that once an issue is in court, it would amount to subjudice if I comment on it. Do you want the court to jail me? When I get to the court, I will tell them what I know about the issue.”
As for the ASECO chairman, Mr Obiora Elochukwu, he said, “Whatever he tells you is subject to the outcome of the matter that is already in court, I can’t pre-empt a matter that is already in court.”