POF Collection, CRFFN Act and Executive Council Approval
REGISTRAR
By Chidi Anthony Opara
In my previous interventions on this matter, I have shown that act 16 of 2007 which established Council For The Regulation Of Freight Forwarding In Nigeria (CRFFN) did not empower CRFFN management and/or Governing Council board to collect Practitioners Operating Fees(POF) on cargoes coming into and/or going out of Nigeria.
I also avvered in such interventions that although the act gives the power of making regulations to CRFFN Governing Board, but that such powers and and the scope of such regulations that would be made must be specified in the relevant sections and/or subsections of the act where the regulations are required.
I stated also that regulations are inferior laws and that any inconsistencies with any provisions of the act would be null and void to the extent of those inconsistencies.
The CRFFN Registrar have however continued to wave the flag of Executive Council approval of POF collection on cargoes coming into and/or going out of Nigeria as the plank of legitimacy of this illegal action.
The Executive Council does not make or interpret laws, the body makes policies, etc within the ambits of the laws of the Federation as enacted by the Legislature and interpreted by the Judiciary.
So, on this issue of POF collection on cargoes coming into and/or going out of Nigeria, the Minister of Transportation, acting on the premises of wrong information made available to him by CRFFN Management/Governing Council, took a memo for the approval of POF collection to the Executive Council and got the memo approved.
It is this same approval that the CRFFN Registrar is waving all over the place, but that approval was given in error and should be withdrawn. It was not given within the ambit of any known law in Nigeria.
This may likely be my last intervention on this matter of POF collection on cargoes coming into and/or going out of Nigeria.
One must however warn that if the freight forwarding profession insists on collecting “Practitioners Operating Fees (POF)” on cargoes coming into and/or going out of Nigeria, it will tantamount to, for example, the medical profession’s regulatory authority charging every medical doctor an amount on every patient treated, in addition to medical license renewal fees.
The above have not happened in any known profession in Nigeria and would make freight forwarding a laughing stock in the comity of professions.
The other most likely thing to happen in future is that all monies collected in the POF collection on cargoes coming into and/or going out of Nigeria would be refunded by judicial order.
*Opara is a Registered Freight Forwarder and former member of CRFFN’s Freight Forwarders Consultative Forum.
In my previous interventions on this matter, I have shown that act 16 of 2007 which established Council For The Regulation Of Freight Forwarding In Nigeria (CRFFN) did not empower CRFFN management and/or Governing Council board to collect Practitioners Operating Fees(POF) on cargoes coming into and/or going out of Nigeria.
I also avvered in such interventions that although the act gives the power of making regulations to CRFFN Governing Board, but that such powers and and the scope of such regulations that would be made must be specified in the relevant sections and/or subsections of the act where the regulations are required.
I stated also that regulations are inferior laws and that any inconsistencies with any provisions of the act would be null and void to the extent of those inconsistencies.
The CRFFN Registrar have however continued to wave the flag of Executive Council approval of POF collection on cargoes coming into and/or going out of Nigeria as the plank of legitimacy of this illegal action.
The Executive Council does not make or interpret laws, the body makes policies, etc within the ambits of the laws of the Federation as enacted by the Legislature and interpreted by the Judiciary.
So, on this issue of POF collection on cargoes coming into and/or going out of Nigeria, the Minister of Transportation, acting on the premises of wrong information made available to him by CRFFN Management/Governing Council, took a memo for the approval of POF collection to the Executive Council and got the memo approved.
It is this same approval that the CRFFN Registrar is waving all over the place, but that approval was given in error and should be withdrawn. It was not given within the ambit of any known law in Nigeria.
This may likely be my last intervention on this matter of POF collection on cargoes coming into and/or going out of Nigeria.
One must however warn that if the freight forwarding profession insists on collecting “Practitioners Operating Fees (POF)” on cargoes coming into and/or going out of Nigeria, it will tantamount to, for example, the medical profession’s regulatory authority charging every medical doctor an amount on every patient treated, in addition to medical license renewal fees.
The above have not happened in any known profession in Nigeria and would make freight forwarding a laughing stock in the comity of professions.
The other most likely thing to happen in future is that all monies collected in the POF collection on cargoes coming into and/or going out of Nigeria would be refunded by judicial order.
*Opara is a Registered Freight Forwarder and former member of CRFFN’s Freight Forwarders Consultative Forum.
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