Dredgers Seek Compensation For 2nd Niger Bridge

Sand dredgers along the River Niger at Onitsha have staged a protest against the non-payment of compensation to them by government for vacating their sites for the erection of the Second Niger Bridge.
Members of the Dredgers Owners Association of Anambra State took to the streets in Onitsha to drive home their demand that they should be factored into the payment of compensation by the Federal Government.

Sand dredgers along the River Niger at Onitsha have staged a protest against the non-payment of compensation to them by government for vacating their sites for the erection of the Second Niger Bridge.
Members of the Dredgers Owners Association of Anambra State took to the streets in Onitsha to drive home their demand that they should be factored into the payment of compensation by the Federal Government.
Addressing journalists yesterday, the Chairman, Mr. Gilbert Udemadu, said they have discovered that  certain group was plotting to deceive the Federal Government and collect the compensation due to the dredgers.
They said the fact that dredgers from the Asaba end of the Niger have been paid their compensation showed that they too were entitled to theirs now.
Udemadu said members of DOAAS were invited to a meeting in November last year by a consulting firm, Aurecon Nigeria Limited to discuss the modalities for payment of the compensation for their property that will be affected by the bridge project.
But to their surprise, they were sidelined and a foreign list of dredgers without any property around the site was adopted.
“We were asked to submit the list of our members who were affected by the project. While we were still harmonizing the list, another group went behind us to submit the list to the consulting firm,” he said.
They accused some key officers at the federal ministry of Works of trying to play pranks with the genuine members of DOAAS by adopting the strange list submitted by one Gilbert Obi, the Chairman of DOAAS Board of Trustees.
They called on the Federal Ministry of Works to stop any further payment of compensation pending the time the matter will be resolved.
However Obi denied the charges against him. He explained that the Federal government had mapped out persons or groups affected by the construction of second Niger Bridge and denied any involvement in the process of selecting the beneficiaries.