Ladipo Market: Yoruba mechanics accuse South East cartel of buying up auto workshops
By Omolade Adegbuyi
Lagos officials accused of bribery
In the competitive auto market, Yoruba mechanics and auto dealers are being pushed off the stage local leaders told Irohinoodua mid week. They accused officials of Lagos State Government of taking kickbacks to sell land allocated to Yoruba mechanics to a strong Igbo cartel.
The Yoruba mechanics are complaining that their counterparts from the South East are paying huge sum of money to Lagos officials to buy up the limited spaces leaving the Yoruba mechanics hopeless and jobless.
“Officials of Lagos State Government have no sense of history. What drives them is cash.Yoruba mechanics have been driven away from Ladipo and elsewhere in Lagos. This is an organised cartel. They succeed because they bribe the Lagos State Government” Muftai Akerele told our correspondent
He said the Yoruba mechanics have met the Lagos authorities but that they could not raise the millions of cash being demanded as kicback which their counterparts from the South East are able to muster.
A call to the media aide of the State Governor Mr Gbenga Akosile was not responded to as at press time.
“The implication is that lands that have been used by generations of Yoruba mechanics have been taken over and handed over to mechanics from the South East who even never voted for the All Progressives Congress, APC”
Another Yoruba spare parts dealer, Kunle Ibrahim said the South East traders have organised themselves into a cartel that is determined to control the most strategic commerce in Lagos and the South West.
“We have Executive Council here. There is no Yoruba person. We are being asked to vacate the land for them to take over backed by some Lagos State Government officials who collect money from them,” he said.
The Yoruba Ladipo Yoruba mechanic workers said they are raising the alarm, claiming that Igbo individuals are taking over their workshops, potentially displacing indigenous workers. According to them, 13 workshops initially allocated to them by the former Lagos State Governor Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande, associate of the late sage Chief Obafemi Awolowo have neen handed over to South East mechanics.
One source said all of the land have been acquired by the Igbo community, reportedly due to their financial muzzle.
The mechanics at Odo Aladura appealled to President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, seeking his intervention to address their concerns.
They argue that losing their workshops would not only affect their families’ well-being but also jeopardize their children’s future.
In addition, they are calling on Yoruba leaders to take urgent action to protect their interests and prevent the cartel referring to the Igbo community in this context from totally taking over their land.
The mechanics are also seeking support to safeguard their livelihoods and ensure that their rights are protected.
But an official of the Ladipo Auto Traders Association, Jude Okocha said the traders have legal papers to justify the land being allocated to them.
“We have not done anything illegally. We approached the Lagos State Government which allocated the spaces to our members,” he said
