Liberia: Boakai Orders Street Vendor Clearance After Motorcade Is Booed

PAYNESVILLE — Petty traders at Rehab Junction lost their booths Wednesday when police demolished them, a day after supporters of the opposition Congress for Democratic Change booed President Joseph Nyuma Boakai's motorcade at the same spot.

The sidewalk, long occupied by money exchangers, scratch card sellers, fruit vendors and other traders, sits empty. Vendors said the timing has left them unsure whether the clearing was routine enforcement or punishment for the booing.

No official has connected the two.

Vendors said notices to remove the structures had been issued earlier and that many stayed because they had nowhere else to sell.

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Oretha Dolo, a single mother who sells fruit, said she had already bought her stock when the police arrived.

"I went and bought my market and then, seeing myself not selling today. It affected me greatly," she said.

Hindi Dempster, who also trades at the junction, said clearing the booths without offering an alternative site threatens families who live on daily sales, and that the police presence has driven customers away.

"We pray that this should not continue because we are greatly affected. Just by the presence of the police here, customers are not coming," Dempster said, appealing for the police to withdraw from the area.

Terry M. Dao, a resident and petty trader, said the traders are paying into daily susu groups of 10,000 to 12,000 Liberian dollars and cannot meet them without a place to sell.

"If you continue like this how will we put our daily susu?" he asked.

Dao blamed the booing on people who came from elsewhere, saying they "aren't doing business in the area but came from far and different locations." He said some vendors are considering organizing to apologize to the president.

Dao also said Boakai promised, during an earlier intervention involving the owner of the Conex gas station at the junction, to build a modern exchange bureau for the vendors, and that it was never built.