Joe Effiong, Uyo
A group of contractors in Akwa Ibom State has appealed to the Minister for Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, and the acting managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Professor Kemebradikumo Pondei, for payment in respect of contracts for the renovation of school classroom blocks they executed for the commission two years ago.
The group called “Akwa Ibom State School Renovation Contractors’ Association,” in a statement signed by their Chairman, Barr. Imoh Imoh, lamented that they had incurred huge debts as a result of the contracts which they executed to NDDC specifications with loans without any form of mobilisation from the commission in 2018.
According to the group, comprising 116 members, its members had suffered untold harassment in the hands of creditors with some of them critically ill as a result and some dragged to an anti-graft agency because of default in the payment of loans taken to execute the contracts.
The group stated that it had complied with every directive of the NDDC including the verification exercise in January 2020 since the contracts were awarded its members in September 2017.
“The timely and qualitative completion of the projects was an unprecedented boost to the educational infrastructure of the Niger Delta,” the group said.
They lauded Prof. Pondei for his recent statement that payment would start immediately for contracts with small sums after the passage of the NDDC budget by the National Assembly.
The group, however, pleaded with the minister and the NDDC boss to give it members priority attention given their precarious situation and their faithfulness in the execution and completion of the contracts now that the budget has been passed.
The members drew attention to the fact that “as a policy of vendetta, contractors of similar category from other Niger Delta states were paid by the Prof. Nelson Brambaifa-led interim management committee whereas contractors from Akwa Ibom State were refused payments.”