This question was put to Halifa Sallah and he said the following:
The Mayor of KMC is seen trying to pacify street vendors and shopkeepers who got into confrontation because of the conflict of interests. Public order became the casualty because the KMC is collecting taxes without rendering services to either the shopkeepers or the street vendors. The council needs to hold an emergency session to address this major threat to public order.
It is a disgrace that emergency meetings are yet to be jointly held by the central government and the KMC authorities to discuss the causes and consequences of the recent public order breakdown near the Serrekunda Market in order to avoid it spreading to other areas where conflict exists between shopkeepers paying rent and their dues to the KMC and GRA, and street vendors, from whom KMC collects market dues.
To collect dues without services is gross misrepresentation. Now that violence has even spontaneously broken out with assault on some women who are still nursing their pain for not only losing the materials they bought to sell before the Eid Prayers but also sustaining physical injuries, the whole nation cannot afford to be silent.
The Mayor has a duty not only to pacify but to prevent public disorder by providing the necessary services for the municipality. If the KMC fails to act with immediacy on the provision of market access and the National Environment Agency fails to act to ensure that all streets are free from liter, they should be held accountable for gross misrepresentation and dereliction of duty.
The National Assembly should then establish a special select committee to look into this gross misrepresentation and dereliction of duty that is a threat to public order and peaceful cohabitation of our hardworking citizenry.
Lack of market access availability is a threat to civil order and peace. The early warning signals are already evident. The authorities will ignore them at the peril of the citizenry. The time to act was yesterday and is becoming too late now. We are racing against time and cannot afford another day of waiting, just to allow a more serious disaster to occur. That would be unpardonable.
