By Kariamtou Jallow
Evicted traders along the Bertel Harding Highway have expressed their concerns as OIC begins stretching its road project for the 2022 World Islamic Conference in the country.
Aret Jassy, a trader, feared her business collapsing saying she spent a lot of money constructing her food shop.
“This is very hard on me because if I am to move to another settlement that is going to cause me another expenses because if this building has to be removed it will disturb me a lot because I have spent a lot of money in building this shop so that is going to be another loss that I will be encountering,” she said.
She noted that presently, she’s having many customers patronising her, “so, moving the business to somewhere else will affect my business badly.”
According to her, looking for a new settlement will cost her time and resources, “the government should compensate us to get a new shop to run our businesses.”
Ebrima Jallow, an evicted trader said: “the government should compensate us before moving us to another location. We have family to take care so if government move us without any compensation it will affect us.”
Mr Jallow accused the government of not concentrating on physical planning which he said is too late for them to implement now, adding the eviction should have been done long before now.
“If they happen to move us many people will be affected because many buildings will be destroyed and if there is no compensation then that is going to cause problems between the government and the people which are not good for a country,” he said.
Jainaba Ceesay in her own part said “I have been told to move to another location since then I have been looking for a place to move my business but I am yet to be able to get a new location.”
“However, these people should think wisely before relocating us, because this is our only means of surviving, if they move us without compensation, they are causing us a big problem. We also want this country to develop because this country is ours but when trying to develop a country first look at the interest of both parties before taking another step if not the other party will suffer,” she said.
Ms Ceesay called on the government to help compensate them to look for another solution to their evictions.