Some street vendors, a mainly predominately street vendors, under the banner: Value Girls, operating along Mechlin Street, have accused the Monrovia City Police and officers of the Liberia National Police.
Value Girls’ leadership accused the two state-owned apparatuses of “terrorizing and discriminatory conduct” in the ongoing street-cleaning exercise across the capital.
They recalled how they voted for a rescue government, but on the contrary, they feel meeting police that are mistreating them instead under the watch of the same rescue mission.
According to the vendors, clear demarcations were issued prior to the Christmas season, indicating where selling was permitted and where it was prohibited.
However, during the festive period, authorities granted all vendors temporary permission to sell freely to benefit from the season, an arrangement that extended through January, 2026.
Trouble began in February when police resumed enforcement of street regulations. The Value Girls alleged that the enforcement has been “selective.”
Though the national police and the City Police are yet to comment on the exercise, the vendors claimed that sidewalk sellers were largely left untouched, while vendors, who carry their goods in hands, and operate without fixed stalls, were targeted for removal.
“Only us they are chasing. Those on the sidewalks are sitting comfortably,” one vendor reported. “If this is a city cleanup, it should be for everyone, not select few.”
The Value Girls define themselves as mobile traders, whose small-scale businesses depend entirely on daily street sales.
They say the alleged selective enforcement amounts to discrimination and intimidation, threatening their only means of survival.
The vendors argue that any genuine street-clearing effort must be holistic and fair, not based on favoritism.
They insisted that removing them without relocating them to a designated selling area is “unjust and economically damaging.”
“Our business is our life. It feeds our children, and supports our families. You cannot just remove us and leave us nowhere,” another vendor said.
In a politically charged appeal, several of the vendors referenced their support for President Joseph Nyuma Boaka, saying: “We voted for him believing he would protect vulnerable citizens, not preside over policies we feel are strangulating our livelihoods.”
“We voted for a rescuer, not someone to destroy us. What the police are doing now feels like punishment, not protection,” they said.
As tensions rise, the vendors have called on the public and national authorities to intervene, warning that unequal enforcement and perceived favoritism risk deepening hardship among Monrovia’s already struggling informal workforce.
Source: Emmanuel Mopolu /Insights Liberia