By Gideon Nma Scott, Jr.
The efforts of the LNP-MCC joint operation to decongest the major streets in Monrovia are being lauded by citizens but those who were affected by this exercise are back in the streets for business as usual.
Barely a week following what seemed to have been a joint operation by the Liberia National Police and the police detachment of the Monrovia City Corporation (MCC), intended to depopulate the major streets in Monrovia of streets peddlers, defunct market stalls, and as well decongest traffic, the streets are again crowded with people lining up on major streets, rebuilding their demolished market stalls, as well as setting roadblocks in some areas to prevent pedestrians from tramping over their goods.
In their joint operation to depopulate Monrovia, the LNP-MCC team flattened makeshift market structures and relocated marketers who were seen selling in major streets that obstructed the flow of vehicles and human movement within the city center.
In a press release, the LNP-MCC team said that the exercise targeted Benson, Mechlin, Gurley, Randall, Ashmun, and Carey Streets, as well as Waterside, the main market center in Monrovia. The release however noted that street vendors were decisively removed from the streets and relocated to appropriate places to continue their business.
But, in what may appear to be a defiance to the police operations, street vendors are back in the streets rebuilding their makeshift market stalls; some are seen putting down their goods in the streets, thereby impeding the free movement of people and vehicles.
When this paper reached out to some of the sellers on Gurley and Ashmun Streets, they told the Inquirer that the LNP-MCC team has not identified any place nor relocated them to any market site.
“These shoes we are selling are very delicate to deal with, so we need somewhere very conducive like a market house with little or no sunshine for our goods,” Austin Gaye, a shoe seller, said.
He said if they are relocated to a suitable site, they would have no reason to defy instruction of not selling on the street, saying, “See, we are not on the main street like those selling on Mechlin and Ashmun Streets. We are on the sidewalk and are in no way stopping people from passing. Once we have a good place to sell, we will leave from here, but until that time, we will talk to the police to manage here.”
For her part, Mamie Johnson, a textile designer seller, told this paper that when they were asked to leave the streets, they complied, but since then, the government has not been able to relocate them to a proper place to sell their goods.
“These are clothes we are selling and you don’t expect to sell them in places where they sell pepper or fish, and all of us don’t have US$150 to pay for Jefferson Koijee tables. We do buy and sell just for little profit for us to feed our children and cater for them. That is why we are here on the sidewalk selling,” she said.
“Rent for one small selling spot in the china stores is about US$150-200 a month, and tell me, my brother, we who are doing from hand to mouth, how will we pay for such place to sell?” another lady with a bunch of fabric in her hand asked.
“To put in for one of those small tables with the LMA is like going for UL exams. You have to buy this form, that form, bring this other paper and go the City Hall to bring that other receipt before assigning a table for US$150 a month to you. Who has that kind of energy?” another lady, who did not mention her name, interrupted the conversation.
When this paper contacted the MCC Central Monrovia offices on Ashmun Street, a gentleman at the front desk referred us to speak with the Public Relations Officer of the MCC, whose number they refused to share with us.
Some residents of Monrovia see the coming back on the streets by the marketers as wasted efforts on the part of the LNP-MCC joint team to decongest Monrovia.
Some believe that the team was trying to get the attention of the President, while others say that they knew that decongestion effort by the team was just another bluff.
“I knew that was going nowhere,” Agnes Sartue said, observing that she was happy on the first day, but the interaction between the police and the marketers thereafter informed her that this was going nowhere.
“I knew this was just another GI morale by the police. The very first day of the operation, some of them started collecting money from some of the market people to protect their businesses. So, I knew this was going nowhere,” Madam Sartue asserted.
