The Association of Police Contractors has appealed to the Federal Ministry of Finance to pay its members for projects executed for the police.

The President, Mr Steven Ogbonna, said members were already in pain and poverty, following alleged non-payment for contracts executed for the Nigeria Police since 2010.

Ogbonna, who spoke during a chat with journalists in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, on Wednesday, said, “We have since been asking for our money. At this juncture, we appeal to President Bola Tinubu and other relevant authorities to intervene in the matter, to save us from starving and dying.”

He alleged that the Nigeria Police awarded the contracts for houses and barracks renovation to members in 2010, including the supply of gadgets.

“We duly executed the projects because we were given a time limit to get the jobs delivered. Some were to be delivered within 12 weeks and some within eight weeks.

“We so much had confidence in the Nigeria Police because we have been working for them over the years without experiencing any delay in payment.

“The contractors obtained loans to execute some of the projects and delivered without compromising the agreement reached with the police,” he said.

Ogbonna said members had visited succeeding inspectors-general of police at different times on the matter and had gone through several verifications by the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit.

He said, “The Presidential Committee Initiative on Continuous Audit inherited the debt through the Debt Management Office, promising to get them paid in less than six months, but the promise is yet to be fulfilled.

“We have been going there. We have staged different protests but they never paid us. The committee put in place has carried out an investigation and confirmed that our members were duly certified to execute the projects,” Ogbonna said

He added that members of the association also executed a project in 2009 with the balance of the payment still pending before the one of 2010 was awarded to them.