The Lagos State branch of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has called out the state government over its recent demolition of 15 workshops at the Otumara Mechanic Village in Costain, Ebute-Metta, urging authorities to uphold fairness and justice in their policies.
The NLC accused the government of reclaiming mechanic sites that it had previously allocated to artisans, warning that if the demolition is not reversed, legal action would be pursued to protect the rights of the affected workers.
Speaking at a press briefing, Chairperson of the NLC Lagos State Council, Funmi Sessi, condemned the demolitions, stressing that the livelihoods of members of the Amalgamated Union of Motor Mechanics and Technicians of Nigeria (AUOMMATON) were being destroyed without due consideration for their welfare.
She emphasised that mechanics and technicians remain vital to the functioning of society, warning that rendering them jobless could fuel rising crime rates and further compound unemployment challenges across the state.
“Since injustice has been done, it is either the government returns them to their base or relocates them and compensates them adequately. These are people who voted you into office, don’t take their source of livelihood away from them.
“For NLC, we will not relent. Letters have been written without responses. I expect Mr governor to reach out to us. Ministry of Transportation should be warned in taking laws into their hands. We will take every step to redress the injustice to these people, they are now at home and cannot do mechanic work in the houses, it is not permitted and where they were allocated, government and unknown people have taken it away from them. We will fight it until we get justice for them,” Sessi said.
Explaining their ordeal, the state chairman and secretary, Julius Lawal and Abdulrazzaq Yusus, said the land was approved for use as mechanic workshops by the former governor of Lagos State, Lateef Jakande, on Sept 21, 1980, and allotted to them by the state’s Ministry of Transportation at different times since 1989.
They said each workshop comprises mechanics, panel bearers, electricians, spray painters and air conditioning repairers.They claimed the occupants are permanent allottees of various workshops occupied by them at the Lagos state-approved mechanic village.
They said the land then was a swamp site which they sand-filled and developed with some physical structures, making it a modern mechanic village to meet up with the greater Lagos developmental project of the state government.
Since the allocation of the land, the workers alleged, they had observed all obligations, including the payment of the yearly ground rents to the state.
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Mechanics operating at Otumara Village in Costain, Ebute-Metta, have narrated how their businesses were abruptly destroyed despite assurances that their workshops would remain untouched. They revealed that officials from the Lagos State Building Control Agency had earlier issued them contravention notices in mid-February, followed by an unexpected eviction directive from the Ministry of Physical and Urban Planning that gave them only two days to vacate.
In a desperate bid to save their means of livelihood, the affected workers said they immediately visited the Ministry of Transportation to seek intervention. However, their appeals yielded no protection. Within days, groups of unidentified men arrived at their workshops accompanied by security personnel and individuals they described as private agents. According to the artisans, heavy machinery was deployed to carry out the demolition while the group claimed they were enforcing government orders.
Witnesses explained that even though demolition markings were absent on their structures, no official listened to their pleas. Instead, they were forcefully dispersed with threats and weapons as bulldozers rolled through the village, flattening equipment and property worth millions.
The demolition has left hundreds of mechanics stranded and fearful about their future, as they said multiple petitions sent through their legal team have received no meaningful feedback. The workers are now pleading with Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to step in, emphasising that their only source of daily income was destroyed without consultation or fair warning.
Their legal counsel, Jiti Ogunye, condemned the demolition exercise, describing it as a brutal violation of a longstanding policy that recognised mechanic villages as protected economic hubs. He maintained that such an action lacked justification in any just society and warned that if the matter remained unresolved, the union would seek legal remedy in court to compel the government to respect their rights and restore their livelihoods.