‘Relocation of Marketeers Inhumane, Untimely’

Montserrado County District #3 Representative, Ceebee Barshell, has described the government’s decision to relocate marketeers at Red Light to Omega as “inhumane and untimely.” 

Appearing on the OK FM 99.5 Morning Show, on Tuesday 21, 2021, Rep. Barshell said the demolition and relocation are against the Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development (PAPD) that seeks to uplift people from poverty and whatever trauma they are going through, especially in ‘daily hustling.’ 

“So, If the Pro-poor Agenda will justify itself in this manner and form, then, of course, the pro-poor Agenda has defeated itself. It was inhumane to do so,” he stated.

On Sunday, July 11, 2021, thousands of marketeers at Red Light were shocked when the government, through the Ministry of Public Works (MPW), began demolishing market stalls with a notice to vacate and move to Omega market.

Rep. Barshell believes that the action was hasty and there were no assigned considerations for the demolition of market structures. “I just believe it was done in the manner and form but, of course, to make us uncomfortable as the people’s deputy. If you should or must remove the people, you do not need to be a theologian or a Bible student to know that God, when He was creating Heaven and Earth, or creating man, He prepared the place for a man.”

The marketers, since their relocation, have encountered difficulties in securing spots to sell. Moreover, the market buildings can only host registered sellers under the Liberia Marketing Association (LMA) who are in a small number. The entire land area is swampy and gets flooded during rainfall; a situation that has been a serious challenge for the marketeers since the first week of their relocation.

They have to backfill with sand and red dirt to make it better for selling, an expensive endeavor. Those who were unlucky to secure spots immediately rushed back to the Omega junction, along the Paynesville-Kakata highway, to spread their goods by the roadside to sell, causing traffic congestion between the Coca Cola Factory and Omega along the highway.

He said the marketeers could have been aware of their relocation if the government had worked with their lawmakers in Paynesville.  “If the government wanted to do so, I believe it is the collective effort of lawmakers in Paynesville and the stakeholders involved. We can sit with our people and give them prior notice on various radio stations that, at this time, we will be removing everybody from Red Light to Omega.”

“So, with their own hasty decision to remove the people from Red Light, Poultry, Gobachop Markets and other places to Omega, I believe it was just not only unfair but untimely,” He added.

According to him, the lawmakers of the affected areas are engaging the government institutions including the Ministry of Public Works (MPW), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Liberia National Police (LNP) to create the conditions that will relieve the people of the stress that they are undergoing.

“We are engaging them. We are engaging all the stakeholders involved up to yesterday at the Capitol Building. We also called the EPA Director and the Police Inspector General to know what is happening.”

Rep. Barshell argued that the Poultry market, which is located in the heart of the Pipeline Market in Red Light, was a privately owned market that was demolished by MPW.  “Just imagine, the Poultry Market is on private land. They went there and started to break tables and start breaking things indiscriminately.”

The government has promised to address the concerns of the marketeers by quickly installing street lights at the market junction, while the Ministry of Public works has revealed plans to rehabilitate feeder roads around the Omega market to ease traffic congestion, Acting Public Works Minister Ruth Coker-Collins told reporters at a press conference in Monrovia.