Why Contractors shut down NDDC

The contractors under the umbrella of NDDC Indigenous Contractors Association had in the past six days taken over the premises of the commission in protest, frustrating all activities of the office.

The contractors, who are of Niger Delta origin with placard bearing different inscriptions such as “NDDC pay us our money’, ‘NDDC, Akwa pay contractors please’, ‘NDDC contractors are dying,’ noted that all attempts to get their pay had proven abortive.

Speaking, president of the association, Andrew Ijegbai, regretted that contractors for over five years have not been paid for the services they rendered to the commission, describing it as an act of wickedness.

Ijegbai said it is painful that the contractors used their money to execute the projects, regretting that such projects have been commissioned and put in use whereas the money invested by the contractors has not been paid back.

He said: “We are here because we have done jobs for NDDC for the past four years. We have been waiting for our payment, but they are giving us all kinds of excuse.

“As it stands now we can no longer afford our children’s schools fees. We collected most of that money from financial institutions and we used our houses as collateral, now the banks are  collecting our houses.