Local contractors who embarked on a peaceful protest over an alleged N5Billion owed them were on Thursday, tear gas by operatives of the Nigeria police to break up the protest at Area 11, Garki, Abuja, office of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike. 
The contractors under the aegis of association of indigenous contractors in FCTA are allegedly being owed over N5 billion for contracts already executed and certified for payments by the Federal Capital Territory Administration.
According to Sahara Reporters, one of the protesters said the brutal police action on them was ordered by Wike, disclosing that it was the second time within a month that they had protested over non-payment for jobs executed.
“The stage for today’s incident was set when we contractors converged at the gate. No sooner had we begun the peaceful protest than armed police men arrived the scene and started shooting tear gas us, while arresting and brutalising others even as we scampered for our dear lives in all directions,” the protester said.
A spokesman for the contractors, Mr Andy Kor, told SaharaReporters that they were there merely to protest over the non-payment of the jobs executed after several attempts to get the authorities to pay had failed.
He added that all their jobs were completed and certified for payments, saying none of them had received any money yet.
He said, “We are contractors in FCTA; we have been working and doing contract jobs before the coming of Wike. We are many and have an association called indigenous contractors in FCTA.
“When Wike came and met the jobs done, he temporarily suspended payments and after we asked for the reason, we were told he wanted to study and know what was on the ground. We waited for a while but as we were not told when we would be paid, we protested and we were paid last December.
“After then, they started giving us jobs to do again. Behold eight months after, no payments. We started demanding our money by writing letters to the minister’s office but we were not getting any response. We went to see his chief of staff and head of service Mr Atang who told us he had the minister’s mandate to hold meetings with us over the payment, but after back and forth with the head of service who promised to discuss with the minister, there was no headway.
“So we resolved to gather at the minister’s gate to see him since all letters to see him failed. In fact, we wrote to the commissioner of police and director of the DSS (Department of State Services) to intimate them to intervene and we told them we wanted to hold a peaceful protest for our payments. We have copies to show that our letters were acknowledged by those officers but no response too.
“Yesterday, we decided to gather at the gate since we know Wike would be travelling to China for two weeks and if he is not around, nothing happens in the FCTA. To our surprise, he came and saw us but refused to address us. He just went into his office.
“After two hours of waiting at the gate with policemen blocking us from accessing the minister, what we saw was that the police were sent to tear-gas us at the gate and disperse us.”
“The compilation of the money demanded for contracts done by all the contractors amounts to over N5 billion as we decided on our own to ask each contractor to submit their bill in case he wants to see it as what they might have given him may be different from what we are being owed,” he added