By Godwin Oritse

THE Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, has threatened to arrest contractors at its Science and Technical College, Okoloba, Delta State, which have collected money from the agency and abandoned the work.

Speaking at a public hearing organised by the House Committee on Marine Safety, Education and Administration in Abuja, yesterday, Peterside said that all the contractors have been directed to go back to site. He told Vanguard that if any contractor has issues with payment from the agency, such contractor should come forward and resolve issues.

Peterside Dakuku

He stated: “We asked all contractors to go back to site. If you are being owed, you will definitely be paid and those that earned their certificates have so far been sorted out. A few of them have issues that need to be resolved, and we are resolving the issues. So all contractors should go back to site. If we discover any contractor that has collected money and has not gone back to site we will arrest them.

“I know many contractors that have collected money who do not want to and who we are going to arrest any moment from now. I know many contractors who are on site, I have sent several teams and they all confirmed that the contractors are on site.”

Commending the Director General on its move to arrest the erring contractors, Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Mohammed Bago, said that NIMASA can go ahead to effect such arrest.

“DG, I like to respond to this issue, as part of our responsibility as a Committee, we will do our oversight function on NIMASA and summon all the contractors,” Bago said.

Meanwhile Vanguard gathered the Principal of the College has been directed to stop admitting new intakes into the College. “This has highly retarded economic growth by stunting the desired in-country capacity to service the nation’s developmental needs”, Peterside stated.