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By Samuel Torlumun
-put the sum at N5.2 billion
-contractors lament extreme hardship, loses
Association of Indigenous Contractors of Federal Capital Territory, Abuja has commenced indefinite protest until, Barr. Nyesom Wike, FCT Minister concede to their demands.
Thronged in hundreds, the group stationed at entrance of the FCTA Secretariat to make their demands visible to FCT Minister. They were displaying contract documents to authenticate the legitimacy of their contract offers and executions. Their placards were carrying inscriptions like; “Hon. Minister Wike our children are out of school, pls lend us a helping hand by paying us soon”; “Hon. Minister Wike, pls kindly authorize our payment we can hardly take care of our families”, while others read, “Please extend your kindness to us by authorizing our payments” among others.
Addressing journalists, Coordinator/Chairman of the association, Chuka Muojindu said the group is shocked that payments of jobs carried out by their members were stopped by the FCT Minister.
He stated that the bills have accumulated to “N5,211,503,589.5 being the value of jobs issued to us between September, 2023 to May, 2024-within the life of the Honorable Minister’s administration.
“Large chunk of funds which we deployed to execute these contracts came from bank loans, and other strictly repayment time-bound sources.
“Given that we have not experienced for a long stretch non-payment before, we opted to reach out to the Honorable Minister.
“We could not understand why. Like I said earlier, all FCTA’s contract verification and clearance bodies had given us a clean bill of health, waiting for The Honorable Minister’s sign-in to finalise the payment process.”
According to the Coordinator, reliable sources close to the Minister affirmed his stoppage of the payments. He disclosed that several efforts to meet with the Minister has failed as he has shown unwillingness to yield to their plea.
“We also wrote several letters to the Honorable Minister, some copies of which we will make available to you here. Still, no headway.
“Consequently, we explored other avenues such as reaching him through powerful outsiders, to humbly request that we be paid. Needless disclosing names here, but they returned same outcome: that the Honorable Minister stopped our payments and did not give a date when it we will be paid. This situation/impasse has lingered for nearly two (2) years now. Meanwhile these are contracts awarded by this administration” he pointed out.
On the genuineness of the contracts/executed jobs, the association urged the Minister to set up an independent body to go round and audit the jobs done, so that they can be paid.
Speaking to Apex News Exclusive online, a health sector contractor Caroline Ojeaga disputed the Minister’s claim during press conference that the contracts were not awarded by him, noting that as human, Wike cannot be everywhere, so Executive Secretaries who are his subordinates awarded the contracts.
“For us in the health sector, supplying hospital equipment is saving lives. And we have done our jobs; we have evidence to show that we have done those jobs. We have facts, and end users. We are not fighting the Minister. We are not hoodlums.
“We are begging the Minister to investigate it. For example, I did jobs in Wuse General Hospital, these are things you can verify. I urge the Executive Secretaries and the Minister to resolve this so that our payments will be effected” she pointed out.
Ojeaga lamented the financial hardship contractors are thrown into, as bank charges on the loans taken have risen to breaking point.
“As I speak now, many of our members have lost their homes -confiscated by banks. But we’ll shortly return to relate to you the sorrowful consequences which non-payment has cramped on us” she lamented.
Also lamenting the ordeals of contractors, Muojindu cited a case of a pregnant woman, who is known to FCTA, and who came to beg for her money when she was not paid. Inevitably, she lost her child. This particular case is known to the FCTA Permanent Secretary, Treasury.
The situation is said to be so bad that many no longer have homes as banks have seized their properties erected with hard-earned money. The banks moved in when the loans and interest accruing could not be redeemed.
The marriages of many members, including old marriages, are going through severe attack on account of their inability to even maintain themselves not to speak of their families.
Contractors are appealing to “Minister of the FCT Barr. Nyesom Wike to please come to our aid by paying us, patriotic men and women, who have committed no crime but were rather contributing their quota to the development of Nigeria, our fatherland.
“We request, as a matter of urgency, that the Minister directs the Secretariats, Departments and Agencies to forward our bills to him for the finalization of our payment processes and subsequent transmission to the Treasury Department for immediate payment of N5,211,503,589.5.
“Finally, we call on the father of the nation, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu; Senate President, Very Distinguished Senator Godswill Akpabio; Speaker, House of Representatives, Ri. Hon. Tajudeen Abbas: General Overseers of churches, Chief Imams of Mosques; leaderships of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) and all well-meaning and public-spirited Nigerians to help us prevail on Honorable Minister Wike to urgently pay us” he stated.
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