Construction Firms in distress due to unpaid monies

Indigenous construction firms and their foreign counterparts, have come together to condemn the non-payment of monies owed them by the Federal Government of Nigeria.

Speaking under the aegis of the Federation of Construction Industry, they said the three tiers of of government owe them over N600billion.

The President, Federation of Construction Industry, Mr. Solomon Ogunbusola, decried the practise and said he preferred to speak to the media, than carrying placards.

Ogunbusola said “I can mention over three companies that are owed over N200bn. Julius Berger, their financial director said it in their AGM that they are being owed over N90bn. And out of the N90bn, over N70bn is owed by the Federal Government.”

“Because the payments are not coming, we don’t know what to do. We cannot carry placards; so, we have to make this known through the media.”

An embittered Ogunbusola added that “If this government wants to really work, it has to take care of the construction industry, except somebody is there to drag the government backwards. If we are not making roads and buildings, constructing air and seaports for the government, the whole populace will say the government has done nothing.”

He stated that the previous government awarded a lot of contracts, but did not pay for the job done.

You will recall that Fmr. President Goodluck Jonathan, embarked on various monumental projects.

.

The claim by the construction firms, that they have not been paid for the jobs done, might be a pointer to the recent comments by President Buhari, that he met an empty treasury.