{"id":82307,"date":"2026-01-30T12:06:42","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T12:06:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=82307"},"modified":"2026-01-30T12:06:42","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T12:06:42","slug":"lawyers-protest-at-finance-ministry-over-unpaid-%e2%82%a64trn-contractors-debt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2026\/01\/30\/lawyers-protest-at-finance-ministry-over-unpaid-%e2%82%a64trn-contractors-debt\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawyers Protest at Finance Ministry Over Unpaid \u20a64trn Contractors\u2019 Debt"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Onyeanya Ebere Immaculata<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Over 500 lawyers, indigenous contractors, and civil society groups on Wednesday staged a protest at the Federal Ministry of Finance in Abuja, demanding payment of an estimated \u20a64 trillion owed for completed capital projects.<\/p>\n<p>The protesters, under the banner of Concerned Lawyers for Probity and Justice, joined members of the All-Indigenous Contractors Association of Nigeria (AICAN) and civil society groups, including the Enough is Enough Movement, accusing the ministry of favouritism in settling contractors\u2019 debts.<\/p>\n<p>They also called for the resignation of the Minister of State for Finance, Dr. Doris Uzoka-Anite, over alleged mismanagement of the payment process.<br \/>\nSecurity was tightened around the ministry, with armed police officers and patrol vehicles blocking the main entrance as demonstrators gathered peacefully around 12:48 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>Some contractors, who spoke anonymously for fear of victimisation, said that while partial payments were made in December 2025, most verified debts remain unpaid, worsening their financial strain.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement signed by Precious Okoh and read during the protest, the contractors said many had taken high-interest bank loans to execute government projects and are now facing asset seizures due to loan defaults.<\/p>\n<p>They warned that the unpaid debts are triggering job losses, declining purchasing power, and slowed economic activity, adding that continued neglect of indigenous contractors could undermine national development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Onyeanya Ebere Immaculata Over 500 lawyers, indigenous contractors, and civil society groups on Wednesday staged a protest at the Federal Ministry of Finance in Abuja, demanding payment of an estimated \u20a64 trillion owed for completed capital projects. The protesters, under the banner of Concerned Lawyers for Probity and Justice, joined members of the All-Indigenous [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":82308,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82307"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82309,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82307\/revisions\/82309"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}