The Anti-Corruption Committee of the National of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) continues to win wider supports as more organizations are pledging their readiness to partner with it to check the menace of corruption in the maritime industry and the country at large. Latest in the long list of organizations willing to partner NAGAFF is the Human Rights Defender and Advocacy Centre whose members paid a courtesy visit to the Freight Forwarders Village the National Headquarters of NAGAFF on Wednesday March 2, 2016.
In his comments, NAGAFF Founder, Dr. Boniface Aniebonam expressed delight at the collaboration between his Association and the Human Rights Group, pointing out that corruption needs to be fought wholeheartedly in the country, to check its menace. Dr. Aniebonam remarked that the maritime industry was capable of meeting the financial needs of the country by generating more than enough revenue if its potentials are fully tapped.
The NAGAFF Founder, observed that corruption in the maritime industry is systemic describing it as “the more you look, the less you see”, and therefore welcomes any collaboration aimed at harnessing all efforts towards confronting the monster called corruption. He expressed concerns that corruption is still endemic in the maritime sector despite the appointment of a no-nonsense Rtd. Col. Hameed Ali as the Comptroller-General of Customs.
Dr. Aniebonam therefore called on every well-meaning Nigerian to join the efforts to fight corruption in view of the danger it poses for these generation and generations to come.
For his part, the National Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Committee of the NAGAFF, Chief Increase Uche, traced the history of the Association’s efforts at fighting corruption to the Former President Olusegen Obasanjo era when the Freight Forwarders Vanguard of NAGAFF was registered by the ICPC under Rtd,. Justice A.M.A. Akanbi.
The Anit-Corruption Committee Chairman said NAGAFF has taken the fight higher with his Committee’s status of the National Executive Council of the Association. Vice President, Human Rights Defender and Advocacy Center, Innocent Agbo commended NAGAFF for its concerns over the menace of corruption and efforts to combat it. Agbo said his group decided to partner NAGAFF because of its vast experience in similar efforts expressing the desire of his group to tap from this wealth of experience. Buttressing Dr. Aniebonam’s earlier comment, the human rights group boss said corruption is a form of human rights abuse as it denies the people the benefit of enjoying the dividends of the resources which God has deposited in the country.
The meeting resolved to support the government in the on-going fight against corruption, but urged government to lay more emphasis on enforcing all relevant laws aimed at checking malpractices in the industry. It is also agreed that the stakeholders must endeavour to be compliant to import and export regulation if we must reduce the menace of corruption in the Nigerian ports and border areas.
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