Contractors demand N750m debt, seal FHA office

No fewer that 50 contractors blocked the main gate of the headquarters of the Federal Housing Authority on Tuesday in Abuja, demanding the payment of an estimated N750m owed them by the agency.
The protest, which started at about 12 noon, continued till about 2pm.
The aggrieved contractors sat at the gate and vowed that they would not leave until the management came to address them.
A police officer, who tried to disallow them from forcefully gaining entrance into the premises, was molested before he was rescued by his colleagues.
Many of the protesters carried placards with inscriptions such as ‘FHA, we are tired of empty promises'; ‘partnership is a fraud, pay us our money now'; ‘no payment, no partnership'; and ‘pay us our money now’.
The chairman, FHA contractors union, Mr. Innocent Odika, led the protesters and blocked the main entrance of the organiation.
Odika said, “We are pleading with the management of FHA to pay us our money, which has been accumulating since 2010 and since then, people have been dying and many of us can’t pay our children’s school fees. Many of the big fishes in this country have acquired the houses we are talking about. Some of those houses we are talking about as in Lagos, have been occupied. Why won’t they pay us our money?

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“The houses are located in Lagos, Apo (Abuja),  where they are already numbering the houses. We were told some people have shared the money which is about N750m in various sites. Some of us borrowed money from banks. Can we continue this way in this country. We are not leaving here until they come down and address us and tell when they are going to pay us our money.
“We are more than 500 people but some of them could not come for the protest because they don’t have money. Some of our colleagues are in Lagos and they can’t come. The banks are now dragging us people because we took loans.”
But the FHA’s General Manager, Finance, Col. Rufus Adejoro(retd.), told the aggrieved protesters that management would look into the matter for a possible resolution.
He said, “We are not enemies, we are all friends. We are looking into your grievances and we need to meet with your executives now and at the end of the day, they will brief you.  Just cool your temper and please don’t let us create sensation. All is well!
“We are feeling your impact and we know what you are passing through. We need to have a meeting with your executives it is very important.”