EDUCATION FG school food vendors protest non-payment

Some contractors of the Federal Government College Ilorin took to the streets to protest over non-payment of their monies by the authorities. The contractors alleged that they supplied food items and stationeries worth N31, 450,000 between 2010 and 2011 but the payments were still yet to be made. One of the protesters said a female contractor awaiting payment slumped and died recently while many others were on the verge of forfeiting properties they pledged as collateral before they obtained loans from banks to execute the contracts. He said he and his colleagues supplied food, books and other stationeries but haven’t received payment despite several reports made to the Federal Ministry of Education. The protesters, who were mostly elderly, carried placards with various inscriptions such as: ‘Federal Ministry of Education Please Pay us Our Money’. ‘FGC Ilorin and Federal Ministry of Education Please Pay Us Our Money’, ‘We are Suffering’, ‘Honourable Minister of Education we Seek Your Quick Intervention and Attention on this Matter as we are being owed and Dying of Hunger and Neglect’, among others. Speaking on behalf of the contractors, Pastor Stephen B. Iwalaye, said they supplied foods to the school between 2010 and 2011 but are yet to get their money. “We supplied the food stuffs and books to the school during the two sessions and we have written severally but to no avail. One of us died as a result of lack of payment. The Federal Government should help us and pay the money to avoid further loss of lives,” Iwalaye said. Another contractor who spoke during the protest, Alhaja Rafat A. Olumo, said the bank she got loan from to supply items to the school had attempted to take over her house but she appealed for more time. “We have written to the school many times when nothing was forthcoming. We wrote to the Federal Ministry of Education and some people came to the school from the ministry for verification but up till now we have not heard anything from them again. “Three of us also went to Abuja over the issue but nothing still is forthcoming. “The Federal Government should please prevail on them to pay us our money,” she said. Copies of the letters exchanged between the contractors and the school which were made available to our correspondent showed that the contractors have made series of attempt to recover their money while their debtor had continually appealed to them to exercise more patience to sort out the issue. In his reaction during a telephone interview with our correspondent, the principal of the school, Mr Isa Sulaiman Adamu, confirmed that the school owed some contractors but added that he inherited the debt because he was posted to the school as principal in only in August. “I resumed in August to the school and the former principal told me everything before she left. I have also written to Abuja over the matter but we are still waiting for response from the Federal Ministry of Education,” he said.