Contractors under the aegis of the All Indigenous Contractors Association of Nigeria (AICAN) have barricaded the entrance of the Ministry of Finance to demand for the payment of over N760 billion owed for completed projects in 2024.
The AICAN members who set their canopy directly at the entrance of the Ministry of Finance headquarters, Abuja, on Tuesday, said all the pledges made by the government during previous negotiations were not honoured.
The General Secretary of the Association, Babatunde Oyeniyi, told TheFact Daily that the contractors had approached the Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Wale Edun, in September this year to find out what was delaying the payment of the money.
He said after protracted negotiations, the Ministry signed an agreement with the association to pay the N760 billion.
Oyeniyi said when the association waited for months without the payment, it besieged the national assembly for intervention.
He said at the national assembly, a meeting was scheduled and after long negotiations, assurances were given that the money would be paid.
He, however, lamented that one month after the last negotiations, nothing has happened, and the association members are dying.
The General Secretary said the protest was to force the government to speedily answer the contractors by paying their money.
“The demand is that they should just pay us. We have finished our work. All the contractors that have finished their work, they should pay them.
“We are not demanding anything else. We have worked, we have been certified, people have even started using the projects, so they should pay us,” he demanded.
