CRFFN Election: Freight Forwarders Angry, Disappointed as Amaechi Reschedules Meeting Again
Pic 3 Minister of Transportation, Mr Chibuike Amaechi briefing State House Correspondnts after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Tuesday (2/1/18) 0015/2/1/2018/Callistus Ewelike/NAN
*Minister threatens to appoint Chairman, Vice Chairman
By Francis Ugwoke
About 30 freight forwarders who attended the meeting scheduled for Friday last week with the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, were disappointed as the latter called off the meeting shortly on take-off rescheduling it to Friday this week.
It was gathered that the meeting which was to start at 3pm was shifted to 5.30pm on Friday with the Minister arriving
at 6.20pm to announce that he was tired, exhausted and cannot hold the meeting the same day.
He threatened that if the contestants insisted and pushed further, he doubts his full concentration to the meeting, a source told SHIPPING DAY.
It was gathered that at this stage, two contestants supported the idea for a shift of date, while another informed the Minister that if he wanted to hold the meeting , it would not last more than 10 minutes, a subtle way to get him to proceed with the meeting.
But our source disclosed that the Minister shocked the freight forwarders when he threatened that he may go ahead and appoint a Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Governing Council, saying that anyone who wants to go to court can go to court as it was their right.
He shocked the freight forwarders further when he was quoted by our source to have said, “at any case, when they go to court, before the court will give judgment, I would have been out of the Ministry”.
The Minister added that if the meeting holds next week and there is no lead way to the election, he may resort to appointing a Chairman and Vice.
He said he did it in the past and the freight forwarders grumbled but it worked.
The source said that surprisingly, two freight forwarders described as ‘neophytes’ echoed: “supported!!!”.
Following this, the meeting was formally rescheduled for Friday next week, by 11am. In Abuja.
Our source said the outcome of the meeting shocked most of the candidates as they gathered at the Federal Ministry of Transport car park to talk with each other.
The sources said many viewed the Minister’s acts as a deliberate political scripts aimed to tacitly conveying the Ministry’s intention to assemble all the contestant and read out the riot act to them, in the manner it was done in the past.
The contestants who travelled all the way from Lagos and Port Harcourt to Abuja were disappointed that the Minister did not consider the economic implication to the freighter forwarders, the cost of logistics and flight.
It was gathered the cost of flights at weekends is usually alarming as none of the contestants spent nothing less than #150,000:00 each.
The contestants were of the view that the Ministry should always apply the principle of economic of scale in its dealings, as officials do not foot the bills themselves.
Besides, the contestants reasoned that Friday of the week is very important a day of administrative convenience to any Chief executive in the industry, adding that calling them out for mere waste of their time was most regrettable.
About Post Author
