Informal sector workers, under the auspices of the Nigerian Automobile Technicians Association (NATA) and the Federation of Informal Workers’ Organisation of Nigeria (FIWON), have called on Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State to urgently intervene in the on-going demolition of mechanic villages in the state by officials of his government.
The workers, numbering over 2,000, who with their leaders, addressed a press conference in Lagos at the weekend, also urged the governor to arrest what they termed the on-going trampling of their constitutional rights to legitimate pursuit of their livelihood as citizens of the state.
Asiwaju Jacob Fayeun, the NATA state chairman, and Mr. Gbenga Komolafe, the FIWON General Secretary, in their separate addresses to journalists, maintained that the demolition of the various mechanic villages in the state had thrown thousands of the mechanics out of job.
They also revealed that following the demolition, some of the affected mechanics had died, several of them injured and hospitalised, while some had also suffered stroke, while life had become unbearable for them and their dependants.
Fayeun stated that the government’s action, championed by the Ministry of Transport, had also rubbished several international conventions on the need for informal sector workers to access public spaces to do their work and offer needed services to members of the public.
He said: “We appeal that our members be allowed back to their work places with all the seized vehicles and work tools returned to them immediately in the interest of justice and good order in Lagos State, failing which we will continue to use all legitimate avenues to press for justice to be done.”
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The union leaders disclosed that the workers had written several petitions and letters to the relevant state authorities, including the governor and the State House of Assembly over the issue, while they had carried out protests to both the Governor’s Office and the legislature to no avail.
The unionists, who displayed several documents and correspondents, accused corrupt officials of the Ministry of Transport, and greedy land speculators, who they accused of conniving to deprive them of the mechanic villages, which were legally and officially allocated to them since the Lateef Jakande administration.
Fayeun stressed that his members had been loyal to Lagos State government right from the days of Alliance for Democracy (AD) to the current dispensation under the All Progressives Congress (APC), adding that they had continued to vote for the party during every election, even when they got nothing in return.
The unionist wondered why the government would turn around to pay them with eviction and demolition of their structures in the mechanic villages, rather than compensating them for their loyalty and in the process, rendering them jobless at this critical time in the life of the nation.
Fayeun urged the government to reverse the eviction of the mechanics and demolition of the mechanic villages, or provide the workers with alternative places to carry out their trades.
He stressed that the informal sector workers in Lagos had suffered a lot in the hands of local government officials, officials of Ministry of the Environment and Ministry of Transport, who he said connive with greedy businessmen and land speculators from time to time to deprive the workers of their legitimate means of livelihood by demolishing markets and mechanic villages in the state.
