Waste disposal contractors in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have appealed to the Minister of FCT, Nyesom Wike, to intervene in the resolution of outstanding seven-month payment arrears owed to over 300 workers across various Area Councils.
The contractors, who operate under the auspices of the Waste Disposal Contractors Forum, held a press briefing on Wednesday to voice their concerns.
The leaders of the forum explained that their contracts began in April 2022 and were set for three years and that as they near the completion of their assignments, they found themselves in an increasingly precarious situation.
One of the leaders, Mr John Okafor, highlighted the urgency of the matter. “As of now, this is the seventh month running without payment. Waste management services are capital-intensive. We spend money on diesel, servicing our equipment, paying salaries, and other logistics. Yet, for the past seven months, we have not received any payment.
“We have written to the Honourable Minister, but we do not know where the issue lies. We have been in contact with the Satellite Town Development Department, our supervisory agency, but they keep saying they are on it, that the minister has not yet approved payment, and this has put us in a very tight situation.
“We have documentation and photos proving that our teams are on sites and actively working. If there are concerns about our performance, we are eager to clarify them.
“As of December, our workers across the six area councils were on us for payments. They had to celebrate the festivities without money, and we were deeply pained. Our lenders have also stopped extending credit to us because they say we have not been able to repay as previously agreed,” he said.
Okafor made a heartfelt appeal to Wike. “We are begging the Honourable Minister to graciously attend to our urgent plea. This is not just for our sake but for the over 300 workers who depend on these payments.”
Another leader, Alhaji Mohamed Bala, expressed the gravity of the situation. “Waste management is a pragmatic exercise; if we do not evacuate waste, it will accumulate. We have pictures and GPS data to verify our work from July until now.
“The scope of our work extends beyond routine waste collection. We are mandated to assist local governments that lack adequate waste management services. Yet we can not continue doing this without timely payments,” he lamented.
Bala reiterated the contractors’ commitment to their duties, stating, “We are working actively across 23 different locations in the six area councils. We are not waiting for local governments to take action; we are here as intervenors. But for local governments to leave all waste management duties to us is unfair.”
The contractors asserted their readiness to provide evidence of their work and their locations to dispel any misinformation regarding the effectiveness of their services.
