Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja
The Association of Motor Dealers of Nigeria (AMDON) has written the FCT Minister Nyesom Wike requesting for an audience and review of the ban imposed on unauthorised car dealerships operating in Abuja’s designated green areas.
The National President of AMDON, Prince Ajibola Adedoyin, disclosed this while addressing reporters in Abuja.
He said successive FCT Ministers, starting in 2001 with Nasir El Rufai, who offered them a place Tunga Maje had failed to resolve the issue of the relocation of the car sellers.
He noted that Bala Mohammed once offered them a replacement somewhere in Lower Usuma Dam but the committee he set up for that purpose, discovered that the earmarked place was not good enough for auto business and recommended Dakwo District, which incidentally was also encroached upon and became a subject of litigation.
Adedoyin said the immediate past FCT Minister, Mohammed Musa Bello, offered the car sellers some green areas for temporary use pending the provision of a permanent site.
“And that is how we found ourselves where we are. We have tried to write the Honourable Minister, since we know him as a man of action but what we think has been slowing down this project is the fact that there is no political will. And at the same time, we need someone courageous enough to take the step he is supposed to take for a car mart to be a reality in the FCT, which we know will be of immense benefit even to the FCT Administration and its residents,” Adedoyin said.
Adedoyin put the membership strength of AMDON in the FCT at about 1,350 operating more than 1,500 car stands.
He said the clampdown on their operations risks throwing no less than 500,000 individuals into the labour market and causing government huge loss of revenue it was deriving from the association.