Contractors have called on President Bola Tinubu to intervene over delayed payments after execution of their various projects insisting that the delay was causing them untold hardship.
Recently, it was reported that the federal government released N200bn for payment to contractors handling different federal government funded capital projects across the country.
However, the contractors claimed they had waited with bated breath but had yet to be paid even as they claimed that there were no reassuring words from the government.
Some of the contractors claimed that they had been given payment vouchers some weeks ago, indicating that they have been paid but later discovered that there were no cash-backing to access the said money.
They believed that the delay in the payment could not be divorced from the alleged centralisation of the payment procedures of the local contractors by the office of the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF).
A contractor, Elegbeleye Taiwo Ibrahim Bamisaye, in a chat with reporters in Abuja, said, “The resultant effect on us is that we keep on servicing the interests on the loans and the bonds we entered into, to execute and complete these projects.
“We had hoped that the money would be released as scheduled. Our workers cannot get their salaries and to meet the needs of our families are becoming difficult on daily basis.
“The President should please come to our rescue. It has never been in the history of Nigeria that the government could not meet her obligations on budget implementation,” Bamisaiye said.
Meanwhile, it was gathered that the contractors have concluded plans to embark on mass protest over the delayed payment.
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