The Ogun State Government has admitted that it truly shut down nine mechanic villages across the State on Tuesday.
The government explained that it shut the nine mechanic villages due to the failure of the state leadership of the National Automobile Technicians Association (NATA) to remit over N8m rent to it.
Gov Dapo Abiodun yesterday said he did not direct any government official to close down any Mechanic Village in the State.
Gov Abiodun, through his Chief Press Secretary, Kunle Somorin, denied knowledge of any shutdown of Mechanic villages in the entire Ogun State.
Somorin said, “that Mechanic Villages are shut down is news to me. Gov Dapo Abiodun didn’t order the closure of any Mechanic Village in Ogun State. In fact, the one around my house is open and people are there working. I just left the place a while ago.”
Somorin was reacting to a report by DAILY POST that auto technicians at the Mechanic Village along OGTV/Ajebo road, Abeokuta on Tuesday staged a protest over the alleged shutdown of their workshop by the Ogun State government.
But it was later gathered that the government had locked up the mechanic villages after several attempts to get the outstanding N8.8m rent since 2017 from the association failed.
The state Ministry of Environment has now confirmed that it shut all the mechanic villages in the state over failure to remit their monthly rent to the government since 2017.
The Information Officer in the Ministry of Environment in the state, Rotimi Oduniyi told newsmen that the association had refused to remit the money to the government after it allegedly collected same from its members across the state.
He said, “All that the government wants is that they should pay something to boost the Internally Generated Revenue of the state, but they have refused to pay.
“But they have written a letter to the ministry concerning how they will offset the money; that was why the ministry ordered that they should reopen the mechanic villages.”
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