Kakatar CE Limited, one of the biggest
indigenous construction companies in Nigeria
owned by Azibaola Robert, a cousin to
former President Goodluck Jonathan, has
sacked over 1,000 workers.
This was disclosed by a source close to the
company who told The Authority that the
employees were disengaged in batches, first
in June and last month, July, following the
company’s inability to keep “ thousands of the
workers who merely report to work daily
without doing anything.”
According to the report, Kakatar is being
owed over N10 billion by the federal
government for various construction
projects.
It was also gathered that its accounts were
frozen by the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission (EFCC) following
investigation of the operations of a sister
company, OnePlus Holdings, over a $40
million pipeline security contract.
On the alleged freezing of the company’s
accounts, Ekeinde said he was unable to
confirm the information but said that
Kakatar has faced challenges from the EFCC
on an issue that had nothing to do with it.
He also confirmed that like several
construction companies, the federal govern
ment was indebted to Kakatar, but declined
to disclose the amount.
Reports have it that Kakatar is building
infrastructure for Maitama Extension and
Kyami Districts just in the Federal Capital
Territory (FCT) alone.
The company is also building the Karshi-Apo
Expressway which is expected to help de
congest traffic into the FCT from the AYA/
Mararaba axis.
According to some FCTA officials, the road
project ought to have been completed by the
second quarter of the year for
commissioning by President Muhammadu
Buhari
Azibaola Robert speaking at a construction
site
One of them said: “Sadly, the huge debt owed
Kakatar and several other companies operating
in the FCT, coupled with the EFCC freezing of
the company’s accounts, made work to come
to an abrupt end around the end of April.”
The source however commended Kakatar for
keeping its workers for several months, and
for continuing work on projects long after
other construction companies abandoned
their sites and laid-off thousands of workers.
The source lamented that Kakatar’s sack of
the workers was bound to negatively affect
the economy, saying, “this is one indigenous
construction company that had begun giving
the so-called big names in the industry
nightmares.”
The EFCC had on March 23, arrested
Azibaola Robert over the alleged diversion of
$40m through a firm, One-Plus Holdings,
which is a sister company of Kakatar
Construction and Engineering Company
Limited, through an allegedly phoney
contract to secure oil pipelines.
Robert is a prominent entrepreneur from the
Niger Delta with large businesses in the
construction and engineering sectors.
It is believed that his present EFCC ordeal
may have no relationship with these alleged
contracts but may be connected to a
transaction at the former NSA’s office,
which had two of his companies Kakatar and
Oneplus Holdings mentioned amongst 300
other companies and individuals across the
country by the NSA contracts verification
committee.
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