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Sierra Leone: Lawlessness At Big Market
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Concord Times (Freetown)
28 March 2008
Posted to the web 28 March 2008
Olusegun Ogundeji
Freetown
An unexpected streak of lawlessness hit the country's oldest and biggest market popularly called Big Market yesterday as selecting a constituted authority to oversee the activities of traders became a burning issue.
As a norm, it is unconstitutional for traders to smoke or drink alcohol within the market premises but that was reversed yesterday as some of the traders were seen with bottles of palm wine which is very unusual in the trade centre famous for its playing host to many tourists particularly westerners.
The disorderliness started immediately the election which was supposed to elect a new chairman who inturn will constitute a 7-man committee that would run the day-to-day affair of the market for the next two years was reportedly cut off abruptly by one Mr. Bankole Browne who is said to be the Chief Administrative Assistant of the Freetown City Council.
Browne started carrying out the verification exercise for eligible traders in the market along with one Mr.
Momodu Koroma Cons. and Mr. Bordae from the State House as early as 9am. About five men of the Sierra Leone Police were also in attendance.
He verified the first batch of traders comprising of arts and craft, gara dealers and the other set consisting of timber sellers, scraps dealers and petty traders commonly known as fanna market.
One of the traders told Concord Times under condition of anonymity that no sooner did the verification ended than some of the first batch traders headed for the Council and later returned with another council official who called Mr. Brown behind for a brief discussion.
Just after the talk, Brown declared the verification process, which he had earlier commended for its smooth process, null and void.
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As a result, some of the traders were displeased with the situation and refused to recognize the authority of the present chairman Sheik Alhassan Kamara. Another set of sellers insisted that they are not willing to participate in another election.
Those who kicked against the election are of the view that the Freetown City Council is planning to impose a leader on the generality traders based on political affiliation. They also vowed not to pay the usual daily market dues again.
Big Market was closed throughout yesterday.
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