J. Edwood N. Dennis
28 March 2008
Monrovia — With complains from residents of the Doe Community concerning a rather unfair treatment and the manner in which the road is being handled, observers say it has left huge skeletons in the closet.
Residents of the Samuel K. Doe Community have begun complaining that the government selectively destroyed their homes and that the drainage created during the reconstruction of the road poses danger.
Speaking to reporters at the Samuel K. Doe Community in the Free Port area Wednesday, the Youth Leader, Lewis I. Ponnie, Jr., said residents of the community are living in fear and danger because the drainage created alone the Freeway is unsafe and it poses health hazard.
Ponnie, who is President of the Free Port Youth for Development Association said the manner in which the Pubic Works Ministry and the Chinese Engineers designed the drainage leaves more questions than answers and even poses danger to the safety of the children and elderly of the community.
The drainage, he said, lacks outlet through which water flows and since it rained about a month, stagnant water is all over the place. During a visit by our reporter, it was observed that the water is beginning to smell and that residents are putting dirt therein.
As a result of the stench from the water in the drainage, the youth leader said his people are not safe and has called on government to visit the area, see for itself and find a solution.
Another resident, Jonathan Sagin, said though the residents were happy with the reconditioning of the road, he wondered why drainage was left uncovered. He said government failure to cover the drainage would cause people to flee their homes during the raining season, because there is likelihood that it overflows its banks.
In a related development, a resident of that community, Abel Okagberte wants the Ministry of Public Works to provide reasons why it demolished his business center. On Sunday, March 24, 2008, bulldozers of the ministry moved in and demolished the center right across the opened drainage.
Before the project got started, government demolished houses it felt fell in the path of the road and contravene zonal laws.
Okagbere told reporters that he was surprised that after Deputy Pubic Works Minister, Togba Nagana, had earlier announced that the government was not interested in the demolition of houses on that road, his building was later destroyed.
"What surprises me most is that the Ministry ordered the demolition of my building two weeks after I completed it following the first reconstruction exercises," he said.
He has accordingly appealed to the Liberian government especially President Sirleaf to personally intervene to enable him get a justifiable redress especially when some houses that were previously marked were not demolished except his.
Though Public Works Ministry could not be reached up to press time, there is possibility that the building was in a location the government felt contravened the zonal law. "It might have been that he did not listen to instructions, so he bears the weight of the law," remarked a resident of the community.
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