The state government had last year revoked the contract with Qumecs and awarded the same to an indigenous construction firm, Hensek Integrated company limited, leaving an outstanding balance of about N572m due to be paid to the first construction firm.

The alleged inability of the state government to remit the balance has caused untold hardship among the workers as the company has hinged its inability to settle them on government’s failure to remit the balance.

The protesting workers carried playcards of various inscriptions such as ‘Governor Udom Emmanuel: We have lost 4 members to ring road 2 project, :’Mr Governor pay Qumecs’, ‘Governor Udom Emmanuel, we are dying because Qumecs is owing us’, etc.

They told our correspondent that before the contract was revoked, some of them had collected loan facilities and sold cars and other personal belongings to execute the various jobs with the company.

One of the workers, Samuel Peter, who supplied stones said Qumecs owed him the sum of N18m, adding that he sold a piece of land to execute the supply contract but has been unable to recover his money since then.

“I sold a piece of land to supply stones to Qumecs for about N18m. But up till date, I have not been paid,” he lamented

Peter, who said that he was surviving on charity disclosed that one Idorenyin Atang from Eket local government area has committed suicide because he was not able to “pay back the loans he collected from various people to execute a contract and three others have died out of frustration.”

Also speaking, one of the sub contractors, Isaac Ibanga, representing Sikak firm Nigeria Ltd said his company constructed the entire drainage placement of the Ring road project, which was still in use.

He claimed that the company is indebted to him to the tune of N18m adding that the amount was a loan facility granted to him by one of his bankers to execute the project.

He said, “We did the drainage placement to quite a far distance. To my surprise, payment ceased in 2019.

“Later, we heard that the mother company’s contract was revoked and we expected that the severance packages should be paid. We are not interested in who carries on the project.

“We have towed the path of peace since that time. we have appealed and written various letters to Qumecs but we understand that the state government has not paid them.

“We wrote to the state government, copied to the governor and other relevant parastatals but they will tell you that they don’t have any business with subcontractors since they gave the job to Qumecs.

”Under due process, when a job is revoked, necessary checks are made to know if there are any outstanding balance which ought to be defrayed to the contractor, but such was not done in this case.”

When contacted, the project manager, Qumecs Nigeria Limited, Stephen Oluyemi, lamented that the state government has yet to pay the company the outstanding balance of N572 million which will enable them to pay the suppliers and subcontractors.

He said, ”The truth is that we owed the indigenes, subcontractors and suppliers huge amounts of money. They have been writing to us but the issue is that we have not been paid the money by the state government.

“The work since three years ago was about 70% completion until COVID- 19 came and government did not pay and since then, we’ve been expecting payment.

“On February 2021, what rather came was letter of termination and they’ve awarded the contract to another company. Since then, we’ve not received our outstanding balance.

“We have pleaded with them to exercise patience, our equipment was still on site. And as soon as the government pays us, we will clear the debt we owed these Indigenes.”

However, efforts to speak with the state commissioner of Works and Fire Service, Prof. Eno Ibanga, was not successful as at the time of filing this report as he could pick his calls and did not respond to text messages sent to his phone.

Investorozay:
the period udom used to build one flyover
wike built 7
man is just a joke of a governor with his chinese roads across the state already falling apart
8 years on man just did everything in his village and left the rest of akwa ibom to rot

PraiseJr:


hope your Governor build 10 within 3days?

MadamVanessa:



Udom ado ata useme governor. Iniehe se ebot ubom ado Anam ke Akwa Ibom ikan adisio Umoh Eno yak a'succeed enye. Nton governor.

MadamVanessa:



Udom ado ata useme governor. Iniehe se ebot ubom ado anam ke Akwa Ibom ikan adisio Umoh Eno yak a'succeed enye. Nton governor.


I leave Ohio, come back home to come and see nonsense.

OVB123:
Akwa Ibom is beautiful but the people are very poor although not all but many. Government should pay them their money.

OVB123:
Akwa Ibom is beautiful but the people are very poor although not all but many. Government should pay them their money.

Tomek09:
Despite huge crude allocation from FG and IGR being generated from oil sales.

Akwa Ibom is a State that needs a pragmatic leader.

Beyond oil exploration, how can the teeming poor citizens of the State survive??

Many of them are poor yet their government is doing nothing to alleviate their suffering. Something is definitely wrong somewhere.

I can't sit on wealth and still be in lack.

MadamVanessa:



Udom ado ata useme governor. Iniehe se ebot ubom ado anam ke Akwa Ibom ikan adisio Umoh Eno yak a'succeed enye. Nton governor.


I leave Ohio, come back home to come and see nonsense.

OVB123:
Akwa Ibom is beautiful but the people are very poor although not all but many. Government should pay them their money.

VEXT:


Better than the ipob cannibals that keep migrating from their villages to Lagos claiming Lagos is no man's land

lafuria1:

You truly know akwa ibom well

The people in the state are unnecessary poor. There are nice and patient people but unfortunately the state doesn't treat them well.

MadamVanessa:



Udom ado ata useme governor. Iniehe se ebot ubom ado anam ke Akwa Ibom ikan adisio Umoh Eno yak a'succeed enye. Nton governor.


I leave Ohio, come back home to come and see nonsense.

Tomek09:

Don't go and sensitize ur people about the dangers of HIV/AIDS because they're the worst hit with Calabar. They transport the virus all over Nigeria through prostitution and useless househelp stipend job. Nonsense

VEXT:


We all know who are prostitutes and those who mother's engaged in baby factory.. who knows if your true father is from kwara
Even their lord called their women prostitutes