Valuable structures, some used as homes, have been demolished in the District 10, the Catholic community in Montserrado County, leaving hundreds of Liberians including women and children homeless.
Guarded by heavily armed Police presence early yesterday morning, victims with nothing else to do but to grieve in pain and shock wave whilst seeing their homes and structures in few seconds and minutes go down the surface under heavy police presence.
However, the demolition followed a court eviction notice on Saturday, March 30, 2024, that led to serious tension between residents and state security officers, resulting into the throwing of stones and injuring of others.
The court order, accordingly was the ruling of the case went in favor of one Stanton Gaye who is now according to the court ruling the legitimate owner of the land which stretches from the main road from the Catholic Community towards the big swamp and beach side respectively.
Amidst the mixed feelings over the eviction exercise, some eyes-witnesses argued that it is impossible for an individual to own such huge lots of land especially swamp land which they believe do not belong to an individual rather the government.
Even though the court document has proven otherwise, affected residents say they bought the land as wet land as such they got squatters’ right document from the government and to their disbelief an individual in person of Mr. Gaye came to claim legal right of the entire land.
Despite describing the situation as unfortunate, some of the residents in the area disclosed that they have re-bought portion of the land from Mr. Gaye but some of the current victims have also claimed to rebuy the land from the original owner but he has allegedly refused their offers.
Meanwhile, following the intervention of Montserrado County District 10 Representative, some of affected victims while pleading for assistance have also expressed their interest in wanting to rebuy their various spot from Mr. Gaye over fear of losing their property.
As a result of the lawmaker intervention, the demolition process came to a temporary halt but later on intensified after his departure with more homes seen demolished by the bull dozer with heavy police protection.
At the same time, several of the affected victims have also disclosed plans if a strike action in the Catholic community aim at calling the attention of President Joseph Boakai to help remedy the situation.
