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From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, has waded into the dispute between the Federal Government and indigenous contractors.
Kalu, according to a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Levinus Nwabughiogu, following his appointment as chairman of the House Special Committee, on Budget Implementation, by the speaker, Tajudeen Abbas, convened a dialogue between the government and contractors, where the stand-off was resolved.
The statement noted that the parley was attended by the Minister of Finance, Mr. Wale Edun, the Accountant-General of the Federation, Mr. Shamseldeen Ogunjimi and other top government officials, as well as over 80 indigenous contractors.
The government and the contractors have been at loggerhead over alleged non-payment of the former for work done.
At the end of the meeting, the deputy speaker announced that all the issues have been resolved and that payment to the contractors is expected to commence on Monday.
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“We met on Wednesday with Finance Minister, Minister of Budget and Planning, Accountant-General of the Federation, Representatives that cut across all the caucuses of the House, including representation from the House Appropriation Commitee and Finance.
“We saw the protest and asked them to come, lets have a conversation. I want to thank President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR for appointing these gentlemen to occupy the positions they occupy.
“They have shown humility in service. They’ve shown diligence in the way this matter has been handled and the parliament we are happy that all we discussed yesterday they started implementing today, the ability to engage with the people.
“We had over 4 hours engagement and they left here smiling. We got the strategy in place, and we’re going to come back on the 21st of this month to review what we’ve done so far, how we’ve ticked the boxes, what needs to be done and the way forward, ” Kalu was quoted to have said.
According to the statement, Edun commended the Deputy Speaker for his intervention, assuring that the payment will commence next week.
“Under the leadership of the Rt. Hon. Benjamin Kalu, we did hold a marathon meeting today where all the issues were discussed and a timeline was put in place and a way forward was mapped out and all parties at the end of it left knowing that contractors would be paid for jobs done and we have an orderly and systematic way of dealing with the backlogs which had approved overtime, ” the minister reportedly said.
