There was this job that I was supposed to deliver but on the
last day, I was not available because another job came up and I needed to
handle it. I left Egombute on the first
job and went for the second job together with another person hoping that he
(Egombute) would finish the job and collect our remaining balance (which he
did) but he kept the proceeds away from me
and even told me lies.
Let me be specific, this job was awarded for the sum of
N30,000.00 in addition to another N1000 which was attached to the money due to
the nature of the job and that makes it N31,000.00 and the crooked foreman did
not want to pay handsomely.
Now, let me tell you what happened. It was a filling job.
Normally, when a foundation is dug, they need to fill the foundation with sand
so that workers could get a place with which to cast the German floor but the
thing there is that filling entails three things and these are:
1. Back filling
2. Filling and
3. Re-filling
Back filling starts when you pack sands and cover the space
between the foundation block and the outside of the building:
Position for image of back filling.
Filing starts when you actually pack sands and fill the
inside of the foundation to the level that they want:
Position for image of filling.
That day, I went to work at Chinmark group because it was a
construction company that helps people to set up buildings of various
magnifications, designs and tastes. So, I expected him to finish the job and
get our money.
Mind you, we have worked for three days already and it was
remaining just one day and we had done both the back filling and the filling of
the foundation. So, it was remaining just the re-filling which could not be
more than a day’s job which two people could do and I was expecting him to find
somebody, attach the person to himself, finish the work and get our remaining
money which was what he did but he refused to disclose the exact amount of
money that he paid the guy to me and even claimed that I was supposed to pay
back N3000 to the company since that I did not complete the job.
He told me that the people who finished the job charged
N17,000.00 for the re-filling. Meanwhile, we did both the filling and the back-filling
within 3 days and this is just a day’s work. If you charge N17,000 for the
re-filling of the foundation, it means that the actual filling of the
foundation was done for 13,000 because the back-filling money was just N1000
and the foreman was supposed to pay for the re-filling but he didn’t instead,
he only paid for back-filling and filling and expected us to do the re-filling
for the same amount (which was not our job) but the craziest mistake I made was
inviting Egombute into the job.
Normally, I should have looked for another person but he was
the only capable hand available at that time and I promised to pay him 12,000
out of the money if we finish well and 5,000 if he runs away from the job
because I was not interested in the re-filling and back-filling jobs.
My own was to do the filling and get away because that was
where the junk of the money is (imagine 30,000.00) and that was what we did. As
at the time that I left the site on the third day, the filling job was over.
So, I was expecting the man to pay us completely but he didn’t rather he was
insisting that we do the re-filling job before he could pay us our balance of
N14,000.00 being that we had collected N17,000.00 during the course of our work
which we shared as follows:
Day 1 (6,000) = Egombute (2000) + Imiano (4,000).
Day 2 (4,000) = Egombute (1,600) + Imiano (2,400).
Day 3 (7000) = Egombute (3000) + Imiano (4000).
In all, Egombute collected N6,600.00 only before the final
day of the job while I collected N10,400.00 (as a sharp guy) out of the total
sum of N17,000 they paid us which includes the money for filling and back-filling
(which means that they did not pay for re-filling and the foreman mandated us
to do it before our money could be released to show how crooked that he was).
So, that is the story (my brother and my sister). On the
fourth day, Egombute concluded the job in my absence and took the remaining
money.
And I was asking him, how can N14,000.00 be spent on
re-filling alone (just in one day)? Meanwhile, the actual filling and
back-filling took three days to be completed and the only paid us N17,000 yet
he was claiming that I was supposed to bring out N3000 and add to the sum of
N14,000.00 to make it 17,000 which according to him was what the people who did
the re-filling in one day charged but when I met the Cashier in the site, he
told me to forget about the money. I never met the foreman because he was
crooked.
He purposely seized the money till that last day so that he
could force me to do the re-filling job that he did not pay for but I don’t
blame him (some days are like that) but to be candid, they helped us because
the owner of the project who seems to be the Engineer also brought a tractor
into the compound and while it was working, it usually puts sands into the
foundation for us which means that we only needed to spread and level the said
sands within the foundation (so, you can imagine) but Egombute should have told
me the truth.
It was during this same period that I met Cubana, the guy
who took me to another site to find work because he saw the way that I worked
but the thing did not go down well. So, I left.
Here is the crux of the matter: Egombute collected the
remaining money and didn’t give me anything. I went for another work and made
more money and I hope to work again but a crooked foreman.
I did not give a space for the image of re-filling because
it is just the act of act of putting more sands into the building when they
pour water on the filling sand which usually sinks and it is not the job of the
man who did the filling except if that was included in the price. In fact, even
the back-filling is optional.
