Outside the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt on Monday, houseboat workers held up placards. The Sun recorded the bluntest one: “Houseboat contractors are not slaves.”
The houseboat workers say they have gone 34 months without pay. Their employers blame a rent debt they say the Nigerian Army has not cleared.
This is not an oil company story. Oil is the backdrop, not the employer.
The houseboat workers are marine engineers, deckhands, cooks, security personnel, riggers and drivers, according to an open letter from the three firms that hire them. They crew boats that house and feed troops in creeks with no barracks, landing facilities or other shelter.
The firms are Peaches Integrated Services, Etucom Integrated Services and Godsam Industrial Services. They rent houseboats to the military for Operation Delta Safe, the joint task force mandated to guard Nigeria’s oil and gas installations.
In March, the three firms sued the Attorney General of the Federation, the Chief of Defence Staff and the task force commander. They put the unpaid rent at 26 months then. By September, the claim had grown to 33 months.
They also allege the Army seized their boats and used them without paying. The open letter adds that the vessels need regular dry-docking, servicing and recertification, and that they have stayed in service without it.
The houseboat workers who protested on Monday now put the wait at 34 months. Their placards, The Sun reported, accused the Army of riding on their boats without paying, and invoked President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda. One of the houseboat workers said children had stopped going to school.
So who is responsible? The workers’ immediate employers are the three firms. Under Nigerian labour law, employers are responsible for paying their employees, while the National Industrial Court has jurisdiction over disputes involving unpaid wages and salaries. That makes the firms the first port of call for the workers’ claims, even as they pursue the Army over the outstanding rent.
The firms say the unpaid rent has strained their finances and left some staff months without salaries. The houseboat workers sit at the end of that chain.
The Army’s side is hard to find. AfricanQuarters found no public statement from the Army or Defence Headquarters on the claims.
In court, a preliminary objection is due for hearing on 18 November before Justice Stephen Pam. Lawyers for the Chief of Defence Staff and the task force commander raised it earlier. On Monday, according to The Sun, only the lawyer for the first defendant was present.
There was a hint of movement in September. The firms’ lawyer, Reuben Wanogho, told the court the task force commander had asked for a settlement proposal. I.K. Diri, counsel for the first defendant, said he knew nothing about it.
The judge gave the parties until 22 October to report back. AfricanQuarters could not find a public record of what followed.
In 2015, The Guardian reported that three houseboat contractors, including firms named Peaches Integrated, Etukcom Integrated Services and Godsam Industrial Services, were pursuing a similar case in the same court. The debt then exceeded N3 billion, for houseboats hired by the Operation Pulo Shield task force. The owners said they had provided services for 36 months without payment.
Defence counsel Ekanem Etuk told the court: “We have been making efforts to settle this matter out of court.”
That was more than a decade ago. How the case ended is not clear from public records. Now houseboat owners are again chasing the military for rent, and the houseboat workers are again waiting.
The stakes reach beyond the creeks. Security analyst Owunari Otozi has described houseboats as floating operational bases. He put the risk bluntly: “A grounded boat means a grounded surveillance team.”
Military commanders say tighter security in the creeks has helped lift crude output. If that is true, the boats that carry the troops, and the crews who run them, are part of the reason. Yet the bill for them, on the firms’ account, remains unsettled.
On 18 November, the court will hear a point of procedure. The houseboat workers are waiting for something simpler.
The boats are still on the water. The pay has yet to reach the people who keep them there.
