By Bashir Adefaka

Some of the construction companies that handled various road works in the country, particularly in the South East, under the immediate past government have again cried out to President Muhammadu Buhari, begging for intervention in their non-payment matters.

Buhari

They said the non-payment for works done three years has not only led to downsizing of the workforce but also that the companies themselves are now on the verge of being closed down.

Mid September, these contractors, in a report published by Vanguard, had cried out over the same issue. That came following complaint by the National Union of Civil Engineering Construction, Furniture and Wood Workers, NUCECFWW, in which the union raised an alarm over the looming consequences of persistent downsizing of workers by the contruction companies. At that time, the number of workers laid off was already, according to the union, 60,000.

A director at one the construction companies, defended the lay-off of workers, blaming it on the the companies’ inability to continue to pay workers’ salaries in a situation where works done were not paid for close to three years.

Speaking afresh in a message to Vanguard yesterday, he begged the four-month-old administration of President Muhammadu Buhari to “kindly come to our aid with a view to saving us from ruin, even if it will mean that bailout be extended to the sector so that all monies due to us will be paid and our retrenched workers will be recalled.

“These workers were retrenched not because they committed any offence but because the companies where they earned their living were being incapacitated by financial crisis resulting from non-payment of works done for both federal and state governments.  “Our fear is more in the sense that joblessness may increase insecurity and we want the President to look into our plight and the plight of our workers and their dependants,” he said.