Local contractors issue 7-day ultimatum to Works ministry over unpaid debts

Aggrieved Nigerian contractors are spoiling for a showdown with the Federal Ministry of Works over what they said is the wilful refusal of the ministry to approve payment for job done. Consequently, the contractors on Monday issued the ministry a one-week ultimatum to treat their files and direct for immediate payment of their contract sums or risk protest. At a news conference in Abuja, Vitalis Maduka who spoke on behalf of the contractors, said the ministry was frustrating local contractors through its deliberate failure to treat their files and ensure money owed them is paid even after completing their jobs or gone far in handling the contracts.

Maduka alleged that the ministry made sure foreign contractors were paid but is frustrating payment for local contractors by delaying to act on their files insisting that the local contractors are tempted to think the Perm sec was collecting money from the foreign contractors. He said should the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Mahmuda Mamman, fail to address the contractors demands, they would embark on massive protest to the ministry of works, office of the Head of Service of the Federation, the National Assembly and National Human Rights Commission to appeal to them to redeploy the Permanent Secretary. The threat is coming few days after a civil society organisation, Governance Monitor Initiative (GMI) urged President Bola Tinubu to urgently redeploy the permanent secretary for allegedly sabotaging the new government’s efforts efforts.  

Addressing a press conference in Abuja, Programme Manager of GMI, Frank Chigozie, accused the permanent secretary of deliberately frustrating efforts to move the country’s infrastructure development forward. He alleged that as a result, contractors handling work on flood control have abandoned their sites. But when contacted, the ministry said it won’t respond to unauthenticated allegations. The Director of Press in the Ministry, Blessing Lere-Adams, said; “I am sorry, the petition must be authenticated by these: an identifiable address date/reference well endorsed with a name/mobile number inclusive. Only then it can be attended to.