Over Residents Resettlement Fund, With Several Wounded
By Kelvin Gonlah, gonlahkelvin1995@gmail.com
A group of aggrieved men, women, and youths in the Fendell area near Monrovia have staged a protest that has seen protesters and the Liberia National Police (LNP) throwing stones at each other at the main entrance of the University of Liberia Fendall Campus (UL).
It was early Monday morning, April 3, 2023 and the protest disrupted normal businesses, with protesters and several other persons getting wounded, as the residents protested in demand of their resettlement funds.
Properties were damaged properties, normal traffic on the Monrovia-Kakata highway was also disrupted for a period leaving many commuters stranded.
In April 2016 during Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf’s regime,
Thousands of homes were demolished by the government of Liberia was demolished.
In 2016, the University of Liberia’s authority, claiming to have legal title to 5,800 acres of land in the area, UL got authorization from former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s regime to evict citizens from the land claimed to be by the government of Liberia through the UL administration. That removal left many abandoned families vicious to the Liberian authority.
The CDC government of President George Weah later entered negotiations with the aggrieved residents of Fendell and the government promised to make some settlement, something that has not been done so far.
“The government has failed to pay the money it promised since 2016, today we are protesting for our money. Have had many dialogues with the government of Liberia on several occasions; so this is the only means to call the attention of the international community and other humanitarian to come to our aid”, the protester said.
“We completed this dialogue stage for three (3) years, we have had a dialogue and the revolutionary stage. The police have brutalized one of our men, but they will pay for that gruesome act. The only thing we need is for the government to pay the people US$5 million, the US$ 48 million was reduced to US$ 28 million the people accepted it, they reduced it to US$ 16 million, and they reduced it to US$ 8 million again, the people accepted it. President Weah said that in November last year, they were going to remit US$ 2 million to the people’s account but they have not yet. But they remitted 1 US$ Million to the people’s account. This protest will not stop today, tomorrow we will continue this protest until we see the government of Liberia’s intervention”, Boakai Sheriff asserted.
In this direction, the protesters said that the Finance Minister, Samuel Tweah should put their balance of US$4 million in their accounts as the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by the government of Liberia and the victims a few years ago.
“We are telling this footballing government if you can reach out to the people, we will not reach out to you. We are going to the voter registration Center. We are not going to the registration center with any form of violence. We are going to register to vote this footballing President out. We are not violent, but we cannot bar our heads from violence”, another protester added.
For his part, as Representative Aspirant of Montserrado County District#:1 Emmanuel Jethro Kolleh said that the only reason why people protest is when their rights are violated that’s the reason why people protest.
“The government of Liberia has caused emotionally damaged, and mental illness, they took away their people’s livelihood. This is not different from the 1990 war because I can recall, our villages were burned down. We came here to seek refuge. The government needs to call the aggrieved citizens and dialogue with them instead of calling the Liberia National Police to carry on devilish. Our next protest will be at the Executive Mansion acts,” aspirant Kolleh averred.
“The people’s Graves were destroyed, and there are no more decorations days for them, the government destroyed the people’s mental ability and took their culture, their norms, and their values. People see civil disobedience in a mother democracy, then what about this destitute nation? If they used all the diplomatic laws, the only people that can resolve this issue is the government,” he noted.