By Kelvin Gonlah, gonlahkelvin1995@gmail.com
Residents affected by the Fendell demolition exercise have staged another protest in the area against the Liberian government’s delay in disbursing their resettlement benefits along the Monrovia-Kakata highway.
The demolition victims over the weekend carried placards calling the government and the International Community on Saturday, April 15, 2023 at the Fendell Sports pitch.
Unlike earlier protest in April, when there was stone throwing, road blocks and clashes with the Liberia National Police, the weekend protest was relatively peaceful.
Since the early April protest, the government has not made a definitive promised as to when the resettlement benefits will be disbursed.
The lead campaigners of the Fendall demolition, Mrs. Viola Lincoln who was arrested and jailed by the Liberia National Police (LNP) during the first protest, said that they and the government of Liberia (GOL) have negotiated since 2019, and promised to resettle their damaged properties.
But she said the government has refused to resettle them, which has led to many protests to seek redress from the government.
Mrs. Viola Lincoln
“We are here today to tell the president of the Republic of Liberia, George Weah, you want all the people whose properties were damaged to die before you give them their money? Who are you going to give this money to? The money was summed up to US$ 40 million and we’re in court for this money business, and you sent LRRRC to us, and LRRRC captured US$ 20 million plus. From US$ 24, you cut it down to US$5 million. Because we know in particular you were not the one that did it, because you succeeded Madam Sirleaf,”, Mrs. Lincoln noted.
“Because the government is not giving us this money that’s the reason why we are calling on President Weah, we have gone to all the ministries that are responsible for this money. Sometimes when we go to these ministries that are responsible for this money they always say it was not under President Weah’s regime, they always say the government is continuity then why they should even tell me that? President Weah was not the one that demolished our properties, but he took the responsibility,” she added.
According to Mrs. Lincoln, the Liberian government promised to give them 40% of their resettlement money from November to December to receive their 40%. She stressed that it was due to the tragic accident made by the Financial Minister, Samuel Tweah which delay paying 40% of the US$5 million.
“We considered his accident because we are all humans, after his accident, we started again, we went to him Minister Samuel Tweah and he told us that we were going to get our money in February last year we went to the Minister’s office, by then, the Minister and people were preparing the payment paper and which has passed. He told us the second payment was going to be in March this year and the time has passed again. We are in April now, 19 April will make us seven years in this struggle,” the lead campaigner of Fendall Demolition stressed.
“They took our people’s ID card, the phone copy of their deeds were taken, with their passport side pictures, and we allowed people to sign in the form, and our people signed these forms. So if you signed this form, it means that you have received the money already? Because we signed in these forms, our people are now accusing us that we have eaten their money, we are talking about more than 25,000 residents but we have 2,107 family heads for now, the time is overdue,” Madam Lincoln continued.
The aggrieved Fendell residents further stated that they have not received any amount from the Liberian government, even the US$1 million that the government of Liberia claimed to have remitted into their account.