Angry Contractors Besige Imo Assembly .....Over Unpaid Fees

Hell was let loose yesterday when local contractors handling road construction and renovation in Imo State besieged the premises of the Imo State House of Assembly, Owerri lamenting over the more you look, the less you see attitude of the Imo State Government towards their plight. In otherwords, the contractors are furious that they have not been adequately paid or mobilised for the jobs they did.

This blog gathered that the contractors are unhappy over what they described as the selective payment of some of their colleagues, while majority of them were left out.

Trouble started after the Joint Committee on Projects Monitoring led by Hon Stan Dara toured the construction sites of the projects done by the contractors. His report was believed to have been the basis for the selective payment of the contractors, while others were left out.

Those left out complained that the Committee was biased as it was only their colleagues who had godfathers in the present Administration that were paid for jobs.

In apparent show of their annoyance, the contractors in their numbers besieged the office of the Commissioner For Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs where they threatened to cause mayhem if they were not paid. It took the intervention of fierce looking mobile police men to wade off the contractors who were said to have marched in their numbers to the Ahiajoku centre where the State Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha was at a function.

Chanting songs such as we no gree gree o, Rochas pay us our money, the presence of soldiers and armed security personnel waded off the angry contractors from surging towards the Governor. Governor Okorocha after attending to his function left the centre without addressing the angry contractors.

Not done yet, they went the next day to the Imo State House of Assembly where they demanded for the whereabouts of Hon Stan Dara whose committee was said to have short listed those for payment. He was no where to be seen.

Some of the contractors who spoke to this blog said they are unhappy with the manner they have been treated, stating that most of them borrowed money from banks to finance the projects since they were not mobilised for the jobs.

Earlier, the Imo State Commissioner For Information and Strategy, Chinedu Offor, had in a radio programme in Owerri, said the State Government has substantially paid the contractors and vowed that the State Government will not fail to prosecute the  erring ones amongst them