Laleye Dipo in Minna
The multi-billion dollar Minna-Bida road allocation in Niger State is now facing a fresh setback more than three months after the contract for the allocation was awarded through the current administration of Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago.
Successive state administrations had attempted to build the road, but all their efforts had failed before Governor Bago intervened by awarding the contract to three structural companies.
Bago’s management has reportedly reached “an agreement” for the financing of lots 2 and 3 of the Kataeregi-Bida allocation with the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and the ABU Dhabi Development Fund.
The task is expected to be completed by December 2025.
The investigation revealed that more than 500 people from the company protested last weekend against the non-payment of their salaries for three months.
The staff blocked the main front of the company’s administrative building, holding signs with other legends: “Pay us our money, we have worked and they will have to pay us”; “We are hungry, pay us our money, it is our sweat,” among other things.
A leader of the workers’ union, who did not want to give his name, told THISDAY that “we haven’t been paid for 3 months, so we can’t keep running on an empty stomach. “
In the confusion that accompanied the workers’ protest, some of the company’s executives “became enthusiastic” about protecting foreign engineers through the company, leading to the closure of the site.
According to the findings, the company waged a constant war with the state government over its decision to split the contract into three, giving part of it to other contractors, causing the government to stop paying the company until the issues were resolved.
According to the findings, the construction firm complained that it was not contacted before the contract was split and re-awarded to three firms.
In addition, the company’s findings through the state’s Ministry of Works revealed that he was on site and owed more than 7 billion naira before the government took action.
A staff union leader, who declined to give his name, told THISDAY that “we haven’t been paid for 3 months, we are still operating without pay. “
Dantata and Sawo’s head of public relations, Mr. Danladi Aliyu Damidu, said that the site closed after the workers’ protest.
Damidu said that firstly, the control paid the staff 30,000 naira for their right, but they refused to work.
“We also paid them another N10,000 each but they called off the strike,” Damidu said, adding that the company is expecting a payment from some other state government in the amount of N10 billion “out of which we will pay them (the workers)”.
Officials from the state’s Ministry of Public Works and Infrastructure are silent on the development, and the permanent secretary and commissioner have declared themselves annual and have traveled out of state.
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