Contractors protest non-payment for jobs completed

Yesterday, December 29, 2015, at the Niger Delta Development Commission's (NDDC) head office on Aba Road, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, contractors in charge of projects for the Commission staged a peaceful protest for non-payment for contracts executed.

The President of Contractors Association of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) , Mr Joe Adia, has revealed that the purport of the protest was to alert President Muhammad Buhari and the new acting Managing Director of the NDDC, Mrs Ibim Semenitari on what it is that she has to settle.

Joe Adia also revealed that most of them have not been duly remunerated for jobs done between three and five years ago, he even added that some of them who could not handle the situation, died out of frustration.

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Quoting the President of the Association, “We welcome the new acting Managing Director. We want her to know that the major problem is that contractors have been owed for about five years. The Interim Payment Certificates, IPM, for some of them are missing, all because of the delay in payment. We want President Muhammadu Buhari to know that our major problem is payment."

Mr. Joe Adia appealed to the Federal Government of Nigeria to cancel the fresh contracts awarded, according to him, this is because even the jobs awarded several years ago had not been paid for.

He also took his time to appeal to the Federal Government to effectively fund the commission, and that the government should endeavour to release the specified amounts budgeted for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) annually.

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In his words, “They have awarded projects for 2015 in the budget. We are saying that this should be cancelled. They should focus on payment of contractors. The Federal Government should fund NDDC properly. They will announce a budget for NDDC in billions but at the end of the day, the cash that will be released will be far less. This is not right. They should release what they announce as budgeted.

“Contractors are the people to suffer if anything happens to NDDC. The workers will look for another job. So the acting MD should focus on payment of contractors."