By Ibraheem Musa Abuja
Police have dispersed members of the Association of Indigenous Contractors of Nigeria who converged in front of Federal Ministry of Finance in order to protest the non-payment of their debts in Abuja yesterday. Speaking to our correspondent on telephone, Chairman of the Association, Mr. Emmanuel Odibei, said the heavily armed policemen stormed the area where they were converging around 8am and asked them to disband. Odibie, who lamented the police action, pointed out that the cops denied them “our fundamental right to protest for our legitimate rights.” According to him, the Federal Capital Territory Police Command has given his association a verbal permission to go ahead with their protest on Tuesday, when they went to seek for a Police Permit to stage the protest, “only for them to come today (yesterday) to disperse us.
” “We told the police that our protest march will begin at the Federal Secretariat, down to the Ministry of Finance, before terminating at the National Assembly. Th ey told us not to go to the National Assembly but that we should go ahead,” he said. Odibei said the debt being owed his members spanned the President Umaru Yar’Adua government to Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, from 2009 to 2013. Th e chairman said the last administration, however, paid them 50% across the board before 2013, promising to pay up the balance. “Up till now we are still waiting. We haven’t seen anything
