By Deborah Onyofufeke
It was complete chaos this morning as aggrieved contractors who supplied covid-19 machines and personal protective equipment, PPE, to the Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA, blocked the main gate of the Secretariat in a peaceful protest chanting and demanding that their money be paid in full to them as it is long overdue.
The protesters had said it will be 3yrs, by march 2023, that they supplied covid-19 equipment to the administration and they are yet to be paid even when they have done all they could to get paid.
The contractors showed up as early as 8 am to the Area 11 secretariat where the offices of the FCT Ministers and the Permanent Secretary are located and barricaded the major entrance gate.
Carrying placards with different inscriptions that read, ‘Dear Minister, put an end to this wickedness, pay COVID-19 contractors, their money is close to three years already’, ‘We are tired of fake promises,’ and ‘we need our money now,’ among others.
Mr. Micheal Ewoma, one of the contractors who spoke with journalists, accused the FCTA management of reneging in the agreement of prompt payment after three years of supplies.
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“It may interest you to know that by March 2023 it will be three years the FCTA is owing us our money. Considering the politics going on presently, we do not want to be tied to nonpayment because of the electioneering period we are appealing to the government to pay us the money, because a lot of people are in debt and our staff has not been paid salaries for months.
“It has been difficult for all of us. That is why we are appealing to the minister to pay this money so that contractors who came out to do these jobs will also be happy. We need to pay back our loans.
“The FCTA management having promised after we consulted with them severally have failed to honour all agreements with COVID-19 contractors. This is almost three years running and nothing has been done,” he said.
He said that it became very imperative for them to hold a peaceful protest in FCTA to demand the immediate full payment of their monies owed via the supply of various medical equipment and items at the advent of COVID-19 in the year 2019.
“You would recall that the sometime last year 2021, we had a similar peaceful protest with the same demand which resulted in partial payment of our monies 80 per cent.
“As it stands today, some of our contractors have not received a dime as payment since 2019, lots are owed 20% balance of the contract sum. The FCT Minister, Permanent Secretary as well as the Executive Secretary HHSS.
“We are demanding 100 per cent payment of all the COVID-19 files without batching. FCT authority should pay up all monies within a week to the COVID-19 contractors so that we all can move on with our lives,” he said.
