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.
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.
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."
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