Chairman of the Indigenous Contractors of the Federal Capital Territory, Ehuwa Benson, says contractors in the FCT are owed more than N7 billion for legally awarded and fully executed projects, accusing FCT Minister Nyesom Wike of abruptly stopping payments and refusing to investigate completed works.

Speaking in an interview with ARISE News on Monday, Benson said the debts date back more than three years and include contracts awarded before the current minister assumed office.

“We are all contractors. You can get a job anywhere in the country, but the one we are here for is strictly the one for FCT. We are also in solidarity with the federal contractors. I also work with the federal ministry too,” he explained.

He said their own verified debt in the FCT was clear: “What we are being owed in FCT is over N7 billion.”

According to Benson, all the contracts followed due process.

“The contracts are legally awarded and we have a legal agreement for every one of them,” he said, noting that “it’s over two years now — over three years — including jobs before the minister resumed office.”

He argued that payment had been regular before the current leadership took over.

“Before now, we would get our payment coming in and there would be no need for us to question anything. If there was any problem, maybe waiting for a budget they would call us and explain. But when the minister resumed office, he just put a stop to everything.”

Responding to the minister’s claim that many of the jobs were awarded by civil servants without his approval, Benson said the minister needed to verify the facts internally.

“The minister should go back and ask the people working with him — the coordinators and the secretaries — whether they awarded any job or not before coming out to say he was not the one who awarded some of these jobs.

You cannot be doing a job of N10 million to fix a pipe somewhere and expect the minister himself to award it. All the secretaries and coordinators have their own approval limits.”

He insisted that the jobs were not only awarded but completed and in use.

“The jobs are executed. Some of them have been processed to the point of payment. The treasury department is overflowing with files. They have now stopped them from bringing in files.

Some secretaries are so afraid of the minister that they cannot even present the files that are supposed to go to his office,” Benson said.

Providing an example, he added:

“I renovated a classroom at the Secondary Education Board. We finished the job over a year ago. We handed it over. The children are in that classroom now using it.”

He rejected the suggestion that these were irregular or unauthorised contracts.

“Not civil servants — the secretaries. Who are the secretaries in the ministry? They are government appointees. They have the power to award these jobs. Some were awarded by the former permanent secretary before this administration, and the files are there.”

Benson also alleged personal intimidation after he urged the minister to investigate the contracts.

“I personally sent a message to the minister last year asking him to investigate the jobs. Instead of delaying payment, he should investigate.

The next thing I saw was him sending IRT officers to my house, harassing my family. Later, I was arrested. I spent seven days in the IRT cell, underground, just for asking for my money.”

He said the police eventually verified the work.

“The police went to investigate my job and reported back to him. Some of the jobs are very close to his office. This is what we expect the minister to do — investigate the jobs, not just say they are not genuine.”

On whether they had received any official response, he said:

“No. The only response we got… well, nothing concrete. For FCT, our demand is directed straight to the FCT minister.”

He added that contractors were in deep distress.

“This is over three years now. We’ve lost some of our members already. Some are seriously sick. We can’t pay school fees. We can’t do anything.”

Asked what happens if the minister still refuses to pay, Benson was resolute:

“We will continue pressing so that he will pay.” (AriseNews TV, but headline rejigged)

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