Contractors on Monday staged a protest at the Federal Ministry of Finance in Abuja over government’s failure to pay them for jobs already executed.
Protesting under the aegis of Local Contractors of Nigeria, they claimed the Federal Government has failed to pay jobs done across ministries and agencies between three to twelve years ago.
The protest was tagged, “Marathon Peaceful Protest /Hunger Strike against Federal Government Delay to Pay for Contracts Executed by Local Contractors between three to 12 years”.
The protesters carried placards with inscription such as, “Madam Minister, you told us N18 billion was released to pay us, where is the money”, “Save our children from starvation, pay us now”, among others.
Publicity Secretary of the group, Mr Danny Rowland, told journalists that the contractors who had executed validly awarded contracts had not been paid for their services.
Rowland said the group was aware of a statement from the Finance Ministry that billions of naira had been approved and released by the Presidency to settle liabilities.
According to him, “Over 5,000 members of the Local Contractors across the nation are passing through severe life threatening situations and hunger, while some have passed on as a result of this delay to pay us”.
He recalled that during one of the group’s protests on July 8, an official assured that the Finance Ministry would pay the contractors within two weeks.
He added that such empty, deceptive and unfulfilled promise heightened pressure from the contractors’ creditors after the expiration of the stipulated period.
He, however, noted that local contractors had borrowed money from banks with interests and executed the contracts.
He said: “We are calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to mandate the Minister of Finance to pay local contractors now or else we will remain in this protest and hunger strike before the eyes of the globe”.
As the protest continued quickly to engage with the group as some its leaders were invited in to meet with the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Alhaji Ahmed Aliyu.
At the end of the closed door meeting which lasted to an hour, Rowland told journalists that said that Aliyu assured the executive that payment would start within two and half weeks from September.
“He assured us that the money available for our payment was not up to the earlier amount that was mentioned.
“He assured us that there was money in billions but he did not tell us the accurate amount that will settle the local contractors.
“He also said that the Ministry wanted to make sure that the money that was available was judiciously used for the real contractors that were being owed as strange names had started appearing from nowhere”, he added.
