Monrovia – Over 2,000 residents of Fendall who were made homeless as the result of the demolition exercise carried out by the authority of the University of Liberia are to seek legal redress at the ECOWAS Court sitting in Abuja, Nigeria.
Report by Kennedy L.Yangian [email protected]
The residents reached the decision over the weekend at a mass meeting filled with weeping and grieving held at the Confidence High School in the Fendall Community. The meeting was organized by the Liberia Media For Democratic Initiative (LMDI), producer of the radio program the “dialogue”
John Kollie, the producer of the dialogue told the residents that the meeting was intended to acquaint them of their rights under international law and how to find the way forward for their plight to be heard.
“At the end of the war, land conflicts became another problem but what is happening now is that government is leading the land conflict in the country,” said John Kollie who referred to the Fendall demolition exercise by government as total evil against residents of Fendall.
Journalist Kollie went on to tell the homeless residents that one of the responsibilities of the government is to feel and provide shelter for its citizens but the action taken by the government against demolishing homes and villages in Fendall without any compensation for those whose homes were demolished was wrong, adding “this kind of action must stop and that it is not good for our country.”
With a lawsuit claiming US$40M against the Government already filed by the homeless residents awaiting hearing and determination at the Civil Law Court “A” at the Temple of Justice, all of the residents who spoke at the meeting agreed to proceed with their case at the ECOWAS Court.
“We will not keep the peace while we are grieving, we need to proceed to the ECOWAS Court with this case,” said one of the aggrieved residents.
“This government is heartless, if it did not want anyone to build here, we could have been notified but this did not happen, therefore let us proceed with our case to ECOWAS Court,” said another speaker while all of the speakers who spoke preferred the case going to the ECOWAS Court.
Madam Viola Lincoln, the Chairperson for the affected Fendall residents told FrontPageAfrica after the meeting that proceeding to ECOWAS Court does not mean that they don’t respect the justice system in the country.
“We have already filed a lawsuit for US$40m at Civil Law Court “A” at the Temple of Justice but we are proceeding to the ECOWAS Court for the violation of our rights under international laws,” said Madam Lincoln.
She stated that the University of Liberia (UL) administration has demolished their homes because they were misled by the Civil Law Court “B” at the Temple of Justice who gave the UL possession when the case before the court was not for possession of land.
According to Madam Lincoln, in 2015 the affected residents of Fendall filed lawsuit to the Civil Law Court at the Temple of Justice under the guise as an association for declaratory judgment to the Fendall land but the court dismiss our case because the court says that the association was not legal but when they took an appeal to the Supreme Court the case was dismissed because their lawyer did not effect the appeal process.
Madam Lincoln furthered that a decision was reached with the Legal Advisor to the President and Chairperson of the Presidential Committee, Cllr. Seward Cooper, on the Fendall land for compensation to be paid unto them but that did not happen as their homes were demolished in April of this year.
“We and the government officials carried out the survey in Fendall and while waiting for the government to come and value, they came under the guise to identify alleys not known they have come to demolish our homes without any compensation up to present,” said Madam Lincoln.