Two years after receiving plumbing materials for a TETFund project in Niger State, Alhaji Muhammad Zanna (Mai’jir), CEO of Kamazaf Engineering Services Ltd, has ‘fled’ with the outstanding payment for the materials delivered by Dr Alpha Abdullahi Aliyu, founder of Zaitun Tech Services.

FIJ gathered that Alhaji Zanna relocated to Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, in 2021 without paying his debt.

Despite all efforts to get the TETFund contractor to pay the outstanding bill, which is to the tune of N621,530, he has remained “unreachable and untouchable”.

Aliyu told FIJ that Zanna had gotten a contract for the construction of the administration block extension at the Federal Polytechnic, Bida, Niger State.

One of the letters written to the TETFund contractor

The contract, according to him, was funded by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund). The construction project kicked off in 2019 and it was completed in 2020.

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He further disclosed that Zanna had been paying for the materials until 2020 when he last supplied the plumbing materials for the TETFund project.

“In April 2019, he requested for the supply of plumbing materials for the construction work of the institution. He made part payment and left out N601,530. The eite engineer, who was in the centre of the transactions, asked me to give N20,000 to the contractor’s plumber then.

“The last items supplied were in 2020, and he was paying all the while until when he stopped paying before finishing and handing over the project. Contractors like that pay when they receive payment from TETFund.

The court summons

“He has been paid fully by TETFund since 2021, yet he has refused to pay what he owes me. I dragged him to court, yet no response from him. My lawyers said he is unreachable and untouchable.

“He is really owing a lot of people here in Bida from that contract. I’ve been in contact with his site engineer, who keeps on telling me to wait. I have written several letters, demanding him to pay me if he does not want me to make a court case against him. I even included an account number for him to send the money. But he has not contacted me,” he told FIJ.

Frustrated by the TETFund contractor’s blatant disregard for the payment, Aliyu instituted a case before the Chief District Court in Bida.

Hon Gimba Baba Essa, the presiding magistrate, had ordered the contractor to be served a summons, stating that he must be present at the above-named court on March 7, 2022. However, Alhaji Zanna disregarded the order.

When FIJ contacted Aliyu Mohammed Usman, the site manager who works for the contractor, he said: “The issue is that he wants to pay the money, but right now, some of his contracts are not going.”

When FIJ reached out to Zanna for comments, he said he would call back but he did not. When he was called three hours later, he did not pick up the calls.