ABACHA STREET WOMEN DEFY SLPP GOVERNMENT IN FREETOWN
Angry market women who sell at Abacha Street in Freetown on Thursday defied the tyrannical Sierra Leone People’s Party ( SLPP ) by refusing to move and indicating their determination to continue hawking on the street.
The women were angered by the action of SLPP security forces who overnight once again destroyed their stalls in an dictatorial attempt to get them to stop selling at the street.
This problem between the Abacha Street women and the government has been going on since the SLPP government came to power in 2018, and the issue is believed to be politically-motivated after the women overwhelmingly supported the All People’s Congress ( APC ) during the 2018 General Elections. In retaliation, as soon as SLPP’s Julius Maada Bio was declared winner of the presidential elections , his supporters and party thugs went on the rampage and attacked Abacha Street and destroyed all the women’s market stalls. Neither President Bio nor his supporters condemned the unprovoked attacks on the livelihoods of the women.
The women managed to repair their stalls and began selling again on Abacha Street, despite persistent harassment from the police and thugs. But after the August 10 demonstrations last year in which Abacha market women participated to protest against the high prices of food in the country, SLPP thugs and police did it again on the night of August 11 and went on a damage and destruction spree, demolishing the women’s market stalls.
The government argued that it was removing the women from their street trading because they were impeding the smooth flow of traffic, thereby impeding easy access to the city center.
This week, the problem arose again when SLPP sent thugs and police to destroy the women’s market stalls . The next day, Thursday, the market women decided to defy the government by staging wild demonstrations, and refusing to be intimidated by the armed troops sent by the government to intimidate them.
